Deadly Catch: A Mac McClellan Mystery

“The first cast of the day turned my dream vacation into a nightmare. . . .” After twenty-four years in the U.S. Marines, recently retired Mac McClellan is happy to be a civilian again. He is enjoying a leisurely fishing vacation in the Florida panhandle when he hooks a badly decomposed body. Then, when a bag of rare marijuana is discovered stashed aboard his rental boat, he realizes someone is setting him up to take the fall for murder and drug smuggling. Mac’s plans for a more laid-back life must be put on hold while he works to clear his name as the number one suspect. Mac launches an investigation with the help of Kate Bell, a feisty saleslady at the local marina with whom he has struck up a promising relationship. Along the way he must butt heads and match wits with local law enforcement officials, shady politicians, and strong-armed thugs from the Eastern Seaboard to sniff out and bring the real smuggler and killer to justice.

E. Michael Helms’s memoir of his Vietnam combat service, The Proud Bastards, has remained in print for two decades. Originally published by Kensington/Zebra in 1990, it was republished in 2004 by Simon & Schuster/Pocket Star, and has sold nearly 50,000 copies (Pocket Star edition). The memoir is also a past hardcover selection of The Military Book Club. Helms is also the author of Of Blood and Brothers, a two-part novel about the Civil War. Helms currently resides with his wife Karen in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in South Carolina.