DEAD MAN'S TIDE Your name is Charlie Ames and you own a boat called the Sally and you're married to Mary Lou, the most wonderful woman in the world. But this morning you wake up in bed on someone else's cruiser, naked and hungover. An empty bottle rolls along the floor. You have no memory of how you got here. The last thing you do remember is offering a dock neighbor a cup of coffee. Granted, that neighbor is blonde, rich Helene Camden, but what are you doing on her boat? And why are the covers all messed up, with her clothes all strewn about? And if you spent the night with her, where is she now? And, most importantly, why is there blood all over the floor...? THE DANGLING CARROT Recently elected to a higher court, Judge Evan Johns is presiding on his last day of traffic court where he meets Dale Chambers, accused of speeding. Johns senses the attraction immediately, and bored with his wife, arranges to meet with Dale later that evening in his lake cabin. Earlier, prominent businessman Sam Langley has mysteriously disappeared after walking out of a bridge game. So who should be found by two fishermen at the bottom of the lake but Langley? And where do they go to call in their find? Johns' cabin. It is all he can do to get Dale out of sight before the sheriff arrives. But this is only the beginning-between Dale and another missing man, Johns' life just got complicated. THE BIG KISS-OFF When Cade sails back home to the Louisiana Gulf after a long absence, he gets a strange welcome. His old house is up for sale, with local politico Tocko Kalovitch's name is on the sign. The sheriff and his henchman warn him to leave Bay Parish the next day, and give him a good beating to make their point. Then a beautiful Venezuelan stowaway shows up on his boat. Mimi is looking for her husband, Captain James Moran, who flew back to the States after their marriage and seems to have disappeared. Rumors in town suggest that Moran has last been seen with Cade's conniving ex-wife Janice. The questions start piling up for Cade when he discovers a bloodied corpse on his ship. Somebody really wants him gone-but why?