Praise for the novels of Heather Graham
An incredible storyteller.
Los Angeles Daily News
Graham wields a deftly sexy and convincing pen.
Publishers Weekly
If you like mixing a bit of the creepy with a dash of sinister and spine-chilling reading with your romance, be sure to read Heather Grahams latestGraham does a great job of blending just a bit of paranormal with real, human evil.
Miami Herald on Unhallowed Ground
Eerie and atmospheric, this is not late-night reading for the squeamish or sensitive.
RT Book Reviews on Unhallowed Ground
The paranormal elements are integral to the unrelentingly suspenseful plot, the characters are likable, the romance convincing, and, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Grahams atmospheric depiction of a lost city is especially poignant.
Booklist on Ghost Walk
Grahams rich, balanced thriller sizzles with equal parts suspense, romance and the paranormalall of it nail-biting.
Publishers Weekly on The Vision
Heather Graham will keep you in suspense until the very end.
Literary Times
Mystery, sex, paranormal events. Whats not to love?
Kirkus Reviews on The Death Dealer
Ghost Moon
Heather Graham
www.mirabooks.co.uk
Also by HEATHER GRAHAM
THE KILLING EDGE
NIGHT OF THE WOLVES
HOME IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS
UNHALLOWED GROUND
DUST TO DUST
NIGHTWALKER
DEADLY GIFT
DEADLY HARVEST
DEADLY NIGHT
THE DEATH DEALER
THE LAST NOEL
THE SÉANCE
BLOOD RED
THE DEAD ROOM
KISS OF DARKNESS
THE VISION
THE ISLAND
GHOST WALK
KILLING KELLY
THE PRESENCE
DEAD ON THE DANCE FLOOR
PICTURE ME DEAD
HAUNTED
HURRICANE BAY
A SEASON OF MIRACLES
NIGHT OF THE BLACKBIRD
NEVER SLEEP WITH STRANGERS
EYES OF FIRE
SLOW BURN
NIGHT HEAT
The Bone Island Trilogy
GHOST SHADOW
GHOST NIGHT
GHOST MOON
For Sprout and Scout
and the Peace River Ghost Trackers
and a great time at the Spanish Military Hospital
in St. Augustine,
and Daena Smoller and Dr. Larry Montz
with the ISPR, New Orleans, Louisiana,
and the several great groups
who do ghost tours in Key West, Florida.
Key West History Timeline
1513Ponce de Leon is thought to be the first European to discover Florida, which he claimed for Spain. His sailors, watching as they pass the southern islands (the Keys), decide that the mangrove roots look like tortured souls and call them Los Martires, or the Martyrs.
Circa 1600Key West begins to appear on European maps and charts. The first explorers came upon the bones of deceased native tribes, and thus the island was called the Island of Bones, or Cayo Hueso.
The Golden Age of Piracy begins as New World ships carry vast treasures through dangerous waters.
1763The Treaty of Paris gives Florida and Key West to the British and Cuba to the Spanish. The Spanish and Native Americans are forced to leave the Keys and move to Havana. The Spanish, however, claim that the Keys are not part of mainland Florida and were really North Havana. The English say no, the Keys are a part of Florida. In reality, this dispute is merely a war of words. Hardy souls of many nationalities fish, cut timber, hunt turtlesand avoid pirateswith little restraint from any government.
1783The Treaty of Paris ends the American Revolution and returns Florida to Spain.
1815Spain deeds the island of Key West to a loyal Spaniard, Juan Pablo Salas of St. Augustine, Florida.
18191822Florida is ceded to the United States. Salas sells the island to John Simonton for $2,000. Simonton divides the island into four parts, three going to businessmen John Whitehead, John Fleming and Pardon Greene. Cayo Hueso becomes more generally known as Key West.
1822Simonton convinces the U.S. Navy to come to Key Westthe deep-water harbor, which had kept pirates, wreckers and others busy while the land was scarcely developed, would be an incredible asset to the U.S. Lieutenant Matthew C. Perry arrives to assess the situation. Perry reports favorably on the strategic military importance but warns the government that the area is filled with unsavory characterssuch as pirates.
1823Captain David Porter is appointed commodore of the West Indies Anti-Pirate Squadron, known as the Mosquito Fleet. He takes over ruthlessly, basically putting Key West under martial law. People do not like him. However, starting in 1823, he does begin to put a halt to piracy in the area.
The United States of America is in full control of Key West, which is part of the U.S. territory of Florida, and colonizing begins in earnest by Americans, though, as always, those Americans come from many places.
Circa 1828Wrecking becomes a big business in Key West, and much of the island becomes involved in the activity. Its such big business that over the next twenty years, the island becomes one of the richest areas per capita in the United States. In the minds of some, a new kind of piracy has replaced the old. Although wrecking and salvage were licensed and legal, many a ship was lured to its doom by less than scrupulous businessmen.
1845Florida becomes a state. Construction begins on a fort to protect Key West.
1846Construction of Fort Jefferson is begun in the Dry Tortugas.
1850The fort on the island of Key West is named after President Zachary Taylor.
New lighthouses bring about the end of the Golden Age of Wrecking.
1861Florida secedes from the Union on January 10. Fort Zachary Taylor is staunchly held in Union hands and helps defeat the Confederate Navy and control the movement of blockade runners during the war. Key West remains a divided city throughout the great conflict. Construction is begun on the East and West Martello towers, which will serve as supply depots. The salt ponds of Key West supply both sides.
1865The War of Northern Aggression comes to an end with the surrender of Lee at Appomattox Courthouse. Salvage of blockade runners comes to an end.
Dr. Samuel Mudd, deemed guilty of conspiracy after setting John Wilkes Booths broken leg after Lincolns assassination, is incarcerated at Fort Jefferson, the Dry Tortugas.
As salt and salvage industries come to an end, cigar making becomes a major business. The Keys are filled with Cuban cigar makers following Cubas war of independence, but the cigar makers eventually move to Ybor City. Sponging is also big business for a period, but the sponge divers head for waters near Tampa as disease riddles Key Wests beds and the remote location makes industry difficult.
1890The building that will become known as the little White House is built for use as an officers quarters at the naval station. President Truman will spend at least 175 days here, and it will be visited by Eisenhower, Kennedy and many other dignitaries.
1898The USS Maine explodes in Havana Harbor, pre-cipitating the Spanish-American War. Her loss is heavily felt in Key West, as she had been sent from Key West to Havana.
Circa 1900Robert Eugene Otto is born. At the age of four, he receives the doll he will call Robert, and a legend is born as well.
1912Henry Flagler brings the Overseas Railroad to Key West, connecting the islands to the mainland for the first time.
1917On April 6, the United States enters World War I. Key West maintains a military presence.
1919Treaty of Versailles ends World War I.
1920sProhibition gives Key West a new industrybootlegging.
1927Pan American World Airways is founded in Key West to fly visitors back and forth to Havana.
Carl Tanzler, Count von Cosel, arrives in Key West and takes a job at the U.S. Marine Hospital as a radiologist.
1928Ernest Hemingway comes to Key West. Its rumored that while waiting for a roadster from the factory he writes A Farewell to Arms.
1931Hemingway and his wife, Pauline, are gifted with the house on Whitehead Street. Polydactyl cats descend from his pet, Snowball.
Death of Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos.
1933Count von Cosel removes Elenas body from the cemetery.
1935The Labor Day Hurricane wipes out the Overseas Railroad and kills hundreds of people. The railroad will not be rebuilt. The Great Depression comes to Key West, as well, and the island, once the richest in the country, struggles with severe unemployment.
1938An overseas highway is completed, U.S. 1, connecting Key West and the Keys to the mainland.
1940Hemingway and Pauline divorce; Key West loses its great writer, except as a visitor.
Tanzler is found living with Elenas corpse. Her second viewing at the Dean-Lopez Funeral Home draws thousands of visitors.
1941December 7, a date that will live in infamy, occurs, and the U.S. enters World War II.
Tennessee Williams first comes to Key West.
1945World War II ends with the armistice of August 14 (Europe) and the surrender of Japan, September 2. Key West struggles to regain a livable economy.
1947It is believed that Tennessee Williams wrote his first draft of A Streetcar Named Desire while staying at La Concha Hotel on Duval Street.
1962The Cuban Missile Crisis occurs. President John F. Kennedy warns the United States that Cuba is only ninety miles away.
1979The first Fantasy Fest is celebrated.
1980The Mariel boatlift brings tens of thousands of Cuban refugees to Key West.
1982The Conch Republic is born. In an effort to control illegal immigration and drugs, the U.S. sets up a blockade in Florida City, at the northern end of U.S. 1. Traffic is at a stop for seventeen miles, and the mayor of Key West retaliates on April 23, seceding from the U.S. Key West Mayor Dennis Wardlow declares war, surrenders and demands foreign aid. As the U.S. has never responded, under International law, the Conch Republic still exists. Its foreign policy is stated as, The Mitigation of World Tension through the Exercise of Humor. Even though the U.S. never officially recognizes the action, it has the desired effect: the paralyzing blockade is lifted.
1985Jimmy Buffet opens his first Margaritaville restaurant in Key West.
Fort Zachary Taylor becomes a Florida State Park (and a wonderful place for reenactments, picnics and beach bumming).
Treasure hunter Mel Fisher at long last finds the Atocha.
1999First Pirates in Paradise is celebrated.
2000PresentKey West remains a unique paradise, garish, loud, charming, filled with history, water sports, family activities, and down and dirty bars. The Gibraltar of the East, she offers diving, shipwrecks and the spirit of adventure that makes her a fabulous destination, for a day, or forever.
Prologue
The sun was setting, casting a bloodred hue upon the land and the Merlin house.
The house was quite odd, sitting on a spit of peninsula that stretched in a small curlicue from the Old Town mainland of Key West. One of a kind, it was Victorian and elegantand in a state of neglect and decay that made it appear as if it were haunted, almost a living, breathing entity. Shadowed windows might have been eyes, watching all activity that surrounded the place. The fading gray paint created a trick of light in the coming darkness, making it seem as if there was a pulse in the façade of the place. It sat, quiet, dormant, and yet alivewaiting.
Liam Beckett parked his car in the overgrown gravel drive of the old house, dreading what he would find within, and thinking back many years.
This had been Kelseys home for so long. Until her mother had died, and her father had taken her away. Cutter Merlin had stayed behind, either mourning his only daughter or left behind by his son-in-law. Liam didnt know. He remembered Kelsey, though. Shed been his enemythe little girl who tortured him with spitballs while hed slipped behind her to tie knots in her hairand then, somewhere along the way, theyd become friends. And then she had become the first real crush of his life, a dark-haired tomboy who had become a lithe and elegant young woman. He hadnt been able to say goodbye.
And now
He walked to the front door and knocked. The house was nearly seven thousand square feet, and Cutter lived in it alone, sowith or without his sense of dreadthere was no reason to fear because his initial knock wasnt answered. He pressed the buzzer for the doorbell, but he was certain that it hadnt worked in years.
He heard nothing within the house.
He banged on the door again, but there was still no response.
He stepped back on the porch. As Jason Fried had reported, the mail was piling up.
Maybe Cutter Merlin had gone somewhere. Out to see his granddaughter in California, perhaps.
But that wasnt the case, and Liam knew it.
Cutter Merlin hadnt left the island in a decade.
He walked around back. The house itself sat on a solid coral-and-limestone shelf that gave way to sand, sea grapes and mangroves. Bony pines and low scruff foliage surrounded the house, most of it appearing to be dead and unkempt, adding to the barren, forgotten and forlorn appearance of the property. Liam knew how to break in: when Kelsey had forgotten her keys, they had crept through the brushonce tendedto the rear of the house and the laundry room. There was a loose screen over the washer and dryer, and it was a piece of cake to move it.
Liam did so.
He slipped the screen out and crawled in, then leapt down from the dryer to the floor.
The odor assailed him immediately, and he knew.
He just had to find the body.
He flicked the switch, but the lights in the laundry room were out. He doubted it had been used in a long time. The connecting door between the kitchen and the laundry room was unlocked, though, giving to his touch. In the kitchen, he flicked another light switch.
A dim bulb came to life.
Cutter Merlin had been fixing himself something to eat. Flies buzzed around a bowl of tomato soup and the sandwich on the plate beside it. Liam touched the bread; it was hard as a rock. An odor different from the intense smell of death but nearly as bad rose from the sandwich.