It's easy money until the morning he finds Annie's look-alike roommate posed for some gruesome portraits on the other side of his lens. When he isn't shooting magazine glossies and menu food, Rutledge does a bit of forensic work for local law enforcement agencies.

Indeed, he does quite a bit to fill out the uninitiated reader's understanding of the secretive and steamy history of Cayo Hueso.Ĭorcoran's hero, Alex Rutledge is a freelance photographer whose island life has taken a turn for the worse with the recent departure of his girlfriend, Annie Minnette. In his debut novel, The Mango Opera, Tom Corcoran does little to shatter these illusions. Cast almost adrift, the last pearl on the string of islands that make up the end of America's East Coast, Key West endures in our imaginations as an expatriate paradise, a pirate hideaway, and a perpetual party. Key West has been a geographical muse for a gamut of writers from Wallace Stevens to Jimmy Buffett. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. Old scams, island lifestyle, Witness Protection, a detective's nervous breakdown, and a crooked prosecutor's romantic link to both Annie and Julia add to a web of triple cross, hatred and revenge. Tropical politics complicate the process. Aided by his friend, fishing guide Sam Wheeler, Alex launches his own inquiry and revisits his past. Is it coincidence, a copycat, or pure craziness? Key West is in an uproar, and the investigations begin to focus on Rutledge. Within days a series of attacks, linked by evidence, forces Rutledge to suspect that someone is killing his former girlfriends.

Rutledge recognizes the second victim, Julia Balbuena, with whom he had spent a romantic week many years ago. Hours later, the Monroe County sheriff asks Alex to photograph a second murder scene. He is immediately spooked by the resemblance of the victim to Annie Minnette. A freelance photographer who also does crime site work for law enforcement, Rutledge hurries to the murder scene, cameras in hand. His estranged lover, Annie Minnette, has found her new roommate murdered.

Alex Rutledge awakens to a knock at his Key West door.

The mango opera tom corcoran