Hooked On Death

Laced with magnificent fly fishing, this adventure at northern Vermont's beautiful Whitefork Lodge pushes the mystery novel envelope with liberal doses of treachery, murder and good old fashioned sex.

Recovering from a broken ankle, iconoclastic big city drop out, self-proclaimed fly fishing bum and Whitefork Lodge bachelor owner Max Addams hires old friend, Wabnaki "Chief" Danny Shortsleeves to help him as a fishing guide until the cumbersome, "pain-in-the-ass" cast comes off.

The season's first guests are Max's 28 year old daughter and two beautiful, flirtatious female friends from New York City.

The three young women settle comfortably into the idyllic mountain setting until, while fishing out on the lake in front of the lodge, one of them hooks and lands a human skull.

In this rural community near the Canadian border, the find is big news. Do the blue bloods at the local historical society have rights to it? Is the skull an ancient Wabnaki warrior who, centuries before, camped on this very spot? Or is it as Sheriff Simon Perkins believes; proof of a more recent murder? Max's housekeeper Stormy thinks it's nonsense and demands he toss the thing back. Max, citing an old landowner's law, stubbornly refuses everyone until the skull's age can be verified.

Threats are made. The Wabnakis demand the skull be given to them. Tension escalates as the sheriff's investigation digs deeper than Max would like. Danny is torn between loyalties to his friend and his people. Then violence erupts and one of the young women is gruesomely murdered.

Finally, high on a lightning-scarred mountain, Max finds himself alone ... battling for the lives of those he loves most against a kind of insane savagery he's never before experienced.

David Leitz grew up on a farm in Indiana and his love for the outdoors began in the woodlots and small ponds that surrounded his home. His love for writing began at about the same time and flourished along with painting at Syracuse University. An advertising agency copywriter and creative director in New York City, San Francisco and Boston for over thirty years, David has written and directed many famous award-winning ads and television commercials.

He and his wife Frances live in a 250 year old farm house near the ocean on Massachusetts' north coast although David does much of his writing in a rustic little cabin a roll cast away from a trout stream in southern Vermont. He is the author of five Max Addams' novels as well as numerous award winning short stories.

David is working on Max Addams novel number six. It is due out in the fall of 2000.

You can contact him at dfleitz@mediaone.net