In 1935 a shell-shocked war veteran wins a suicidal bet with a ghost from his past. The payoff is more than he could ever imagine: the love of his dream girl, great wealth, and the respect of those who had disdained him. But there are conditions attached and the dead will have their due.
Veterans Key is based on actual events. It is set in the Florida Keys, with major excursions to period Havana, New York, and Miami. The novel is a deep dive into Depression-era America, its prejudices, politics, poverty, crime, technology, and humor. Central are the “Forgotten Men”, World War veterans who never readjusted to civilian life, a large proportion afflicted with battle trauma and now relegated to Federal relief camps, working dollar-a-day coolie jobs. The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane kills hundreds. The survivors were not left unscathed.
Many of the characters are real, their actions and in some cases their words taken from historical records. All behave plausibly. The literary style borrows from the edgy films and fiction of the mid-1930s with such stock characters as sassy dames, tough guy gangsters, dogged lawmen, and sweet ingénues embroiled in crime, sex and violence. Veterans Key adapts themes from Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not (mostly the 1937 book, partly the 1944 movie), and delivers a heavy dose of 1940s noir, à la John Huston’s film, Key Largo.
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