Southern Comfort

October 24, 2011
A smooth-sippin' blend of familiar plot elements, characters, and relationships, written with Michaels's trademark good-enough-on-the-first-draft facility, this contemporary thriller-romance is set primarily in Miami and the Florida Keys. Patrick "Tick" Kelly, former homicide detective, lost his family to a drug killing in 2002. Kate Rush lost her DEA career to the machinations of Lawrence Tyler, a slimy field office chief, in 2009. Now it's 2010, and these two displaced souls converge on Mango Key, where an empty mansion becomes suspiciously active at night. Drug smuggling? Human trafficking? The DEA quietly re-hires Kate "off the book" for an undercover investigation with Sandy, her former DEA teammate, right next to reclusive Tick's stilt-house beach property, where his twin brother, Pete, happens to be visiting. Family bonds, tragedy, exotic locales, big guns, redemption, and a single, sweet kissâit's all here with no surprises in a comfort read of the highest order for Michaels's fans.