The Ghost People of The Everglades


Book Description

The last frontier is no more. Commercial fishing has been banned in Everglades National Park, and the locals were forced to find other means of work, but no one expected drug-smuggling to become big business in a small sleepy fishing village with less than one thousand people in population called Everglades City, Florida, and an island called Chokoloskee. The intertwined and dense mangrove system of the Ten Thousand Islands that surrounded the area and with remote locations provided a perfect environment for smugglers to bring and hide their drugs until they could deliver them for big profits. The Daniels family knew the backcountry of the Everglades and the complicated waterways of the area and knew how to travel through the shallow and treacherous waters and go through other passages unknown to anybody else. The Daniels family were sought after and hired to bring in large loads of drugs from South and Central America, as well as a few other countries. This family was born in the area and knew it like the backs of their hands. The Daniels crew was dubbed the "Saltwater Cowboys" because of their daring and reckless style and the "Ghost People of the Everglades" because they could disappear at a blink of an eye. Their wild and daring stunts happened on the high seas as well as in the complicated waterways of the Ten Thousand Islands. These boys could turn into a cluster of mangroves and disappear into another waterway just behind it. This adventurous family that turned outlaw became the largest importer of drugs into the United States that ran throughout our country. This area was world-renowned to some of the largest cartels or drug-smuggling rings around today and now call Everglades National Park their home.




In the Shadows of the Ghost People


Book Description

The Florida Keys are so coveted for its beauty, and the tourists seem to flock to its small island paradise, giving them a transit feel for the people going in and out of the area. Marathon, Florida, is a small island town located midway down the chain of islands housed a dark and dangerous secret in the hidden world of drug smuggling that dominated the waters from the Florida Keys to the Ten Thousand Islands off Everglades National Park. The setting is in the 1970s where people were carefree and daring and contributed to the recreational use of drugs and the party lifestyle. This story embarks on the glitz and glamorous lifestyle that the commercial fishermen grew accustomed to but endured during a decade of drug smuggling for the largest and most dangerous cartel housed inside of Miami's dark world.




The Black Stallion's Ghost


Book Description

While riding the Black in the Everglades one day, Alec meets a man astride a ghostly gray mare. Alec’s fascination with the man turns to fear as he realizes the man is dangerously close to insanity. Soon Alec and the Black are caught up in a deadly chase through the depths of the Everglades, where a misstep could be fatal.




The Orchid Thief


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK A modern classic of personal journalism, The Orchid Thief is Susan Orlean’s wickedly funny, elegant, and captivating tale of an amazing obsession. Determined to clone an endangered flower—the rare ghost orchid Polyrrhiza lindenii—a deeply eccentric and oddly attractive man named John Laroche leads Orlean on an unforgettable tour of America’s strange flower-selling subculture, through Florida’s swamps and beyond, along with the Seminoles who help him and the forces of justice who fight him. In the end, Orlean—and the reader—will have more respect for underdog determination and a powerful new definition of passion. In this new edition, coming fifteen years after its initial publication and twenty years after she first met the “orchid thief,” Orlean revisits this unforgettable world, and the route by which it was brought to the screen in the film Adaptation, in a new retrospective essay. Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more. Praise for The Orchid Thief “Stylishly written, whimsical yet sophisticated, quirkily detailed and full of empathy . . . The Orchid Thief shows [Orlean’s] gifts in full bloom.”—The New York Times Book Review “Fascinating . . . an engrossing journey [full] of theft, hatred, greed, jealousy, madness, and backstabbing.”—Los Angeles Times “Orlean’s snapshot-vivid, pitch-perfect prose . . . is fast becoming one of our national treasures.”—The Washington Post Book World “Orlean’s gifts [are] her ear for the self-skewing dialogue, her eye for the incongruous, convincing detail, and her Didion-like deftness in description.”—Boston Sunday Globe “A swashbuckling piece of reporting that celebrates some virtues that made America great.”—The Wall Street Journal




Swamplandia!


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • The bravely imagined, wildly acclaimed debut novel from the author of Vampires in the Lemon Grove—about a thirteen year old girl who sets out on a mission through magical swamps to save her family. "Ms. Russell is one in a million.... A suspensfuly, deeply haunted book." —The New York Times Thirteen-year-old Ava Bigtree has lived her entire life at Swamplandia!, her family’s island home and gator-wrestling theme park in the Florida Everglades. But when illness fells Ava’s mother, the park’s indomitable headliner, the family is plunged into chaos; her father withdraws, her sister falls in love with a spooky character known as the Dredgeman, and her brilliant big brother, Kiwi, defects to a rival park called The World of Darkness. As Ava embarks on her mission to save them all, we are drawn into a lush debut that takes us to the shimmering edge of reality.




The Ghost Orchid Ghost


Book Description

Florida's famous swamps—from the Everglades to Mosquito Lagoon to Tate's Hell—serve as fitting backdrops for these chilling original stories. Maybe it's because they are often wet, shadowy places of wild beauty where few people dare to penetrate. They are havens for snakes, alligators, black bears, wildcats, and who knows what. People on the run have often hidden in swamps, while others have gotten lost in the watery expanses; the swamp can be a refuge or a nightmare. Mysterious things just happen in swamps. Maybe it's because they are often wet, shadowy places of wild beauty where few people dare to penetrate. They are havens for snakes, alligators, black bears, wildcats, and who knows what. People on the run have often hidden in swamps, while others have gotten lost in the watery expanses; the swamp can be a refuge or a nightmare. Where else can you find a ghost baby, or an angry specter, or a lost soul? How about a ghost who is obsessed with the ghost orchid, or an alluring snake woman? Throw in a skunk ape or two and you've got the ingredients for many entertaining hours sharing these stories around a campfire or reading them to yourself or out loud. From the Author's Notes at the end of each story, you can learn a thing or two about Florida's swamps, creatures, and history, along with storytelling tips. Florida is rich in history, natural beauty, and ecological and cultural diversity. To protect what is special about our state it is important to educate the people who live here and our visitors. In this unique book you'll find tales of mystery and intrigue interwoven with important facts and lessons of natural history. Who but a naturalist can really scare you about what lurks in the swamp? Doug Alderson has been there and knows. In writing tales for this book, Doug Alderson drew upon many years of entertaining young people as a summer camp counselor and storyteller, and also from decades as a swamp explorer. He is a former associate editor of Florida Wildlife magazine. To learn more about his writing and photography, check out his website at www.dougalderson.net.




Escape to the Everglades


Book Description

Raised as a Seminole, Will Cypress is eager to join Osceola and his followers in the late 1830s as they battle white soldiers in the second Seminole War, fighting to remain in their Florida homelands, until a chance meeting with his white father's relatives causes Will to question his loyalties.




The Past Is Never


Book Description

**WINNER of the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction** **WINNER of the Mississippi Author Award for Adult Fiction selected by the Mississippi Library Association** **WINNER of the 2019 Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters Award for Fiction​** **​WINNER of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize ​for Fiction** **Finalist for the 2019 Colorado Book Awards for Literary Fiction*** "An ode to William Faulkner. . . . As Southern as it gets."—Deep South Magazine A compelling addition to contemporary Southern Gothic fiction, deftly weaving together local legends, family secrets, and the search for a missing child. Siblings Bert, Willet, and Pansy know better than to go swimming at the old rock quarry. According to their father, it's the Devil's place, a place that's been cursed and forgotten. But Mississippi Delta summer days are scorching hot and they can't resist cooling off in the dark, bottomless water. Until the day six-year-old Pansy vanishes. Not drowned, not lost . . . simply gone. When their father disappears as well, Bert and Willet leave their childhoods behind to try and hold their broken family together. Years pass with no sign, no hope of ever finding Pansy alive, and as surely as their mother died of a broken heart, Bert and Willet can't move on. So when clues surface drawing them to the remote tip of Florida, they drop everything and drive south. Deep in the murky depths of the Florida Everglades they may find the answer to Pansy's mysterious disappearance . . . but truth, like the past, is sometimes better left where it lies. Perfect for fans of Flannery O'Connor and Dorothy Allison, The Past Is Never is an atmospheric, haunting story of myths, legends, and the good and evil we carry in our hearts.




Ghosts Unveiled! (Creepy and True #2)


Book Description

Discover all the mysteries, facts, and discoveries about ghosts that are creepy—and true—in the much-anticipated companion to Mummies Exposed! Do you believe in ghosts? Whether you’re a believer in things that go bump in the night or a firmly science-minded skeptic, there is compelling evidence to suggest that the veil between the living and the dead may be thinner than we think. Ghosts Unveiled! investigates spectral appearances, unsolved mysteries, and eerie hauntings around the world: the Vanishing Hitchhiker, the child-nabbing La Llorona, demon cats and dogs, haunted schools, and even wraiths in bathrooms! Examining eyewitness accounts from both contemporary interviews and historical records as well as physical signs of paranormal activity, this meticulously researched, well-balanced, and spine-tingling book will leave you wondering what is truly beyond the veil. The Creepy and True series explores strange phenomena, fun facts, and out of the ordinary discoveries. Read them all to uncover the creepy and true histories of mummies, ghosts, skeletons, and more!




The Swamp


Book Description

A prize-winning r"Washington Post" reporter tells the story of the Florida Everglades, from its beginnings as 4,500 off-putting square miles of natural liquid wasteland to the ecological mess it has become. Photos.