Gill Net Games

Gill Net Games opens with two good ole boys heading out from Ft. Meyers for a day of bait fishing near Sanibel. As they pass a channel marker they see a gill net hanging from the marker and when closer discover that a body is wrapped in the gill net. Macduff and Lucinda learn of the death the following morning at Macduff’s cabin in Montana. Macduff knew the person from a conference where they both spoke. They decide to do something more pleasant and go fishing on the Passage Falls Creek. But on their way home they discover a body also wrapped in a gill net and wedged under a small bridge. It’s also someone Macduff knew.

But that’s not the end of it, as someone is seeking revenge for the passage of the 1994 Florida gill net ban and current proposal to tighten the ban as well as limit judicial review. It could be the work of commercial fishermen, disgruntled about the ban in 1994 and outraged at the new proposals. Or it could be members of PARA ― People Against Recreational Angling ― who a couple of years ago (as told in Crosses to Bear) may have been responsible for the death of one of the Shuttle Gals. 

Macduff and Lucinda, accompanied by loyal Sheltie Wuff, make their annual fall move to Florida. Lucinda leaves the trip in St. Louis to fly to Manhattan and do some work at her old investment firm, but when she leaves Macduff she can’t answer his inquiry about when―or if―she will rejoin Macduff. What may be concerning her is Macduff’s failure to set a wedding date, or that she will interfere with the arrival of his daughter, whom he though died years ago or, more likely, Lucinda’s inability to live with Macduff’s determination to confront his Guatemalan and Sudanese assailants, Juan Pablo Herzog and Abdul Khaliq Isfahani. Macduff is asked by his CIA contact to try again to assassinate Isfahani, this time in Khartoum. Macduff has to deal with his alleged daughter’s arrival, Lucinda’s departure, Dan Wilson’s demands, and more actions against recreational fishermen in Florida.