Tom Corcoran

Although he prefers magazine work, freelance photographer Alex Rutledge won't turn down an occasional crime scene shoot for the Key West Police Department. But when a string of murders takes his viewfinder into strangely familiar territory, Alex's mellow island lifestyle shatters. One after another, someone is killing women who have intimately crossed Alex Rutledge's path. Maybe it's a coincidence. Maybe it's a conspiracy. Or maybe he's crazy. But the connection marks Alex as the prime suspect in a case so hot it's drawn in the county sheriff, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. In a desperate race to save his name and his life, Alex dives into a one-man search for the dark, sweltering truth beneath a case that's pounding toward meltdown.

Alex Rutledge, freelance and part-time Key West crime scene photographer, awakes to his first day off in months. Everything's okay until his phone rings. His old navy buddy, Zack Cahill, is in town and, at 8:00 a.m., drunk in Sloppy Joe's. Zack demands that Rutledge join him for a celebratory beer. When Alex arrives at the bar, eight minutes later, Cahill is gone.

The day continues downhill. A murder in the tourist district, the ransacked apartment of a local bartender, and the chance encounter of Abby Womack, Cahill's ex-mistress, combine to convince Alex that Zach Cahill's disappearance may be linked to all of these events. An overnight fire and a drive-by shooting the next morning amplify the strangeness and danger.

By calling in favors from a crew of Key West characters, stepping aside of law enforcement, and traveling to New Orleans in an attempt to help his friend, Rutledge will fall deep into a mysterious range war, a fight for the profits from a twenty-year-old smuggling deal.

A pleasant Key West Sunday in January turns into a tropical nightmare. It's early. The tourists are still asleep.Freelance and part-time crime photographer Alex Rutledge bicycles near-vacant streets, taking pictures for his own enjoyment.But he's challenged at a restoration district construction site, accused by a developer of snapping photos for an expose. An hour later, the city police request Rutledge's forensic photo expertise.A murder victim has been found - at the same work site. Detective Dexter Hayes, Jr., is caustic and inept, and Rutledge is dismissed before he completes his work. An hour later, the county sheriff asks Alex to photograph another murder victim, this time on nearby Stock Island. Rutledge soon suspects that the murders are linked - illogically, through him. Alex questions the detective's blundering, while the cops begin to link him to the crimes. A powerful real estate broker offers Rutledge an odd, lucrative job. Friends are threatened.He and Teresa dodge gunshots. Yet there is no identifiable antagonist, no motive, no reason for Rutledge to be a hub for evil. To protect himself and his friends, to avoid arrest - unsuccessfully, at first - he must scratch for information on an island where few tell the truth.

Bad news comes in threes. Alex and his friend Sam identify the battered body of Sam's sister. Later, Alex learns that a close friend has died, and the mayor has killed himself. Alex is asked to photograph the suicide scene. Sam returns to Lauderdale to snoop on his own. Alex's relationship hits rough water. Then he discovers a link in the lives of the deceased woman and the mayor. Walls of silence confront Rutledge's queries, and threats follow. Tom Corcoran takes his series to new levels with the ingeniously plotted Octopus Alibi, and shows yet again why he is one of the hottest mystery writers to come out of Florida.

Two men, twenty miles apart, are killed in the same strange way on a quiet summer morning in the Florida Keys. Forensic photographer Alex Rutledge finds that he may be the only person interested in pursuing justice, especially when his brother becomes a key suspect. Alex connects the current-day murders to a thirty-year-old scam amidst revenge smoldering since the Nixon years. He races time to thwart a final killing and, if possible, to prove his brothers innocence. Tom Corcoran once again delivers a deftly plotted and gripping mystery with all of the flavor and intrigue that Key West can offer.

Tom Corcoran's website

Tom Corcoran first moved to Florida in 1970. He has been a disc jockey, bartender, AAA travel counselor, U. S. Navy officer, screenwriter, freelance photographer, automotive magazine editor, computer graphic artist, and journalist.

Corcoran's photographs have appeared on seven Jimmy Buffett album covers. He co-wrote the Buffett hits, "Cuban Crime of Passion," and "Fins." His photos also have appeared on numerous book jackets, including those of Thomas McGuane ("An Outside Chance"), Winston Groom ("Forrest Gump"), and Florida novelists Les Standiford ("Black Mountain" and "Last Train to Paradise") and James W. Hall ("Hot Damn"). From 1987 to 1993 Corcoran edited "Mustang Monthly." His editor's columns were collected in book form, released as "Hoofbeats" in 1994.

As co-owner of The Ketch & Yawl Press, Corcoran has published three South Florida-related books, "Remembering Ernest Hemingway," by James Plath and Frank Simons; "Key West Collection," by Dorothy Raymer; and "The Young Wrecker on the Florida Reef," by Richard Meade Bache. Corcoran's photographs of Key West are included in the Raymer book, and he wrote the introduction for "The Young Wrecker."

In addition to his Alex Rutledge, Florida Keys-based mystery series, Corcoran's three books on classic Ford Mustangs and Shelbys remain popular after twelve years in print. His fifth Alex Rutledge mystery, Air Dance Iguana, was published by St. Martin's Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books in November 2005.