Gone

Hannah Smith, is a tall, strong, formidable Florida woman, the descendant of generations of strong Florida women, all known for their resourcefulness and a touch of the wild side. Her friends, neighbors, and clients also know her as an uncommonly resourceful woman with a keen sense of justice, someone who can't be bullied, and they have taken to coming to her with their problems. She lives on the Gulf Coast just across the bay from Sanibel Island. When her uncle Jake died she took over his fishing guide clients and now makes her living as a fishing guide, but she also took over his other business, a small investigation agency on the side. Her methods can be unorthodox, though, and those on the receiving end of them often wind up very unhappy and sometimes very violent. One day she helped a fishing client escape a brutal storm; now he has asked her to help find his niece Olivia who he fears has gone off with a dangerous con artist. She follows the trail from the enclaves of the rich to the mangrove swamps of the Ten Thousand Islands, where she discovers more about the missing Olivia and the vicious predator who has seduced her.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.