Stairway to the Bottom - a Mick Murphy Key West Mystery

After finding the murdered female killer from the Cold War era, Mick Murphy faces off with a hit man for recently arrested Boston gangster Whitey Bulger. The hit man has  fled from witness protection to collect Bulger's hidden millions. At the same time, retired Cold War agents come to Key West looking for someone that walked off with more than $20 million in diamonds and they believe the missing hit man is their guy. Murphy thinks the situation is funny as he meets and talks to the agents, but dislikes the hit man even though Padre Thomas, the priest that sees and talks to angels, has given him absolution. Though the comedy of errors soon turns tragic for Murphy. It's not long before his government, black-bag buddy Norm Burke shows up with CIA agents in tow, looking for the diamonds. They are soon followed by the British, French, Israeli agents and the Russian mafia. Everyone assumes Murphy can lead them to the Cold War fugitive, while Murphy tries helplessly to explain the man they are looking for is a Boston gangster. On the water, snorkeling at the reef with his fiance Tita, Norm and a female CIA agent, everything in Murphy's world begins to unravel. As both those looking for the hit man and those looking for the diamonds collide,Murphy's world changes forever.Add a few disgruntled retired FBI agents, also looking for Bulger fortune, and willing to do anything to get it and Murphy's world in Paradise begins to resemble hell. In the end, Murphy's world is torn apart.About the AuthorHaskins has been the business editor for the daily Key West paper and the city's public information officer. He lives in Key West, where most of his A Mick Murphy Key West Mystery series is set.