The Price of Access: A Dark Comedy Novel

There are places where people go to disappear, places where people go to reinvent themselves, and places where people go because rent is due, gas is expensive, and nobody has yet invented a socially acceptable way to scream at a utility bill in public. Fort Walton Beach, Florida, depending on the season, humidity level, and number of tourists currently confused by roundabouts, can be all three. It is a town of contradictions, which is to say it is a town with a working economy. There are white sand beaches close enough to make poverty feel personally insulting. There are seafood restaurants where vacationers order market-price grouper without understanding that "market price" is just capitalism wearing a linen shirt. There are military families, retirees, bartenders, contractors, hotel managers, charter captains, real estate agents, massage therapists, church volunteers, beach drunks, and men in expensive sunglasses who say things like "I'm in development" when what they mean is "my father knew a lender." There is money here, but it moves strangely. Some of it arrives on vacation. Some of it lives behind gates. Some of it gets laundered emotionally through brunch. Rae Mercer has never trusted money that smiles.

Pagina's: 442, Paperback, Independently published