What all begins as a hunt for a missing family evolves into a car chase that ends in a shoot-out, wounding Redding’s young trainee, Julie Karras. Redding’s brief glimpse of the shooter, a woman, leaves him with an eerie feeling of déjà vu as he watches her escape into a nearby swamp. The chaotic search that ensues leads FHP officers through the alligator-infested intracoastal waterway paralleling the highway as Redding tends to the two kidnapped daughters of the missing family and their surprising story. But what most troubles him is the deep-seated impression that he knows the woman from somewhere, foreshadowing events in this strange, convoluted tale.
Suddenly Redding is weaving through time via a mystical force called “the shimmer,” and eventually finds himself in 1957's St. Augustine, where he teams up with his deceased grandfather, the legendary Cletus Redding of the Jacksonville police force. Together they pursue the woman, who has bedeviled them both across the time warp. The tale spins into a perilous pursuit leading to Old New Orleans in 1914 as they search for the origins of this spectral being who is obsessed with finding a small locket from her long ago childhood.
Stroud spins history deftly, taking readers through the vicissitudes of 1950s St. Augustine, when Mafia bosses consorted with Cuban kingpins to control Florida’s underworld of the Trafficantes, Gambinos and others. They hold court in the bar of the Alcazar Hotel, Henry Flagler’s luxurious 1887 resort, where Clete Redding makes deals with Tessio Vizzini. Vizzini keeps a lagoon full of hungry gators on his palatial estate, ensuring there will be no trace of his victims.
As the two Reddings are unexpectedly thrown into this quantum leap through time, they are each faced with a dilemma: their actions could change the future, and each has a reason to do that for his own advantage. As they struggle with memories, the story seems to bounce through various episodes of their lives… nothing is quite what it seems, and even their quarry, Selena, appears to be more than one person.
Unraveling the enigma often involves mirrors and reflective images; in fact, Stroud titles one chapter “Objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear.” When they visit the New Orleans apartment of Selena, were the rent has been inexplicably paid since 1909, they find the mirrors draped with linen, in accordance with the Creole belief that when death occurs, a looking glass may catch the spirit.
Stroud has a lively style, with quips like “being followed by a police car is like finding a scorpion in your martini.” Definitely attention-getting. It’s also obvious he’s a real Florida writer (he has a house in Destin), offering a seasoned Floridian’s view of nature. He understands the gathering summer storms as they roll in from the Atlantic, bringing thunderous lightning and blinding rain, or describing the dangers of slogging through a sawgrass swamp on the trail of the spectral killer. He crafts scenes with lyrical descriptions allowing readers to visualize the glassy hall of the shimmer as they spiral through time, or hear the jazz of the French quarter wisping up from the street, evoking the ‘50s with a Johnny Mercer tune. Though the time switches can be a bit jarring, his writing is a pleasure to read.
With more than 20 books to his credit — both fiction and nonfiction — Stroud has a real following. His “Niceville” trilogy made the New York Times bestseller list in 2012, and he’s earned the praise of such literary lions as Elmore Leonard and Stephen King. He penned a series of espionage thrillers under the name David Stone, and this latest work is sure to add to his accolades and earn him new fans.
And it will no doubt leave you wondering if your doppleganger lives in a parallel universe.
This article appears in Jun 21-28, 2018.
