The World of the Series
Meet the Characters
Key Largo is a small town. Everyone knows everyone's business. That's occasionally useful when someone's business turns out to be murder.
Cass Mercer
Former Navy diver. Certified instructor. Reluctant amateur detective.
Cass Mercer spent twelve years as a Navy diver before a knee injury ended her service career and redirected her to the Florida Keys. She opened Lower Depths Dive at the less-glamorous end of the Key Largo marina — a deliberate choice. She likes the work, she likes the water, and she likes being somewhere that doesn't require her to be impressive. She's in her mid-forties, recently divorced, and has certified somewhere north of a thousand recreational divers. She notices things. It's a professional habit that turns out to be inconvenient when the thing she notices is that a death that looks accidental doesn't quite add up.
Jonah Pike
He's been diving these reefs since before Cass arrived. He believes her.
Jonah Pike runs dive charters out of the same marina as Lower Depths Dive, and he's been doing it for twenty-two years. He's Keys-born, unhurried, and has the kind of local knowledge that only comes from spending decades in the same water. He and Cass have a working relationship that has quietly become something more like friendship — the kind where you don't say much but you show up when it matters. He's the first person who takes Cass seriously when she says something is wrong.
Officer Reyes
She's not unsympathetic. She just needs more than a feeling.
Officer Reyes works out of the Monroe County Sheriff's Office and has been stationed in Key Largo long enough to know the dive community well. She's professional, methodical, and not unkind — but she operates within the constraints of what can be proven, and Cass's instincts don't always translate into evidence. Their relationship is one of mutual respect and occasional friction. Reyes doesn't dismiss Cass, but she also can't open an investigation based on the fact that something felt off.
Deco
A character introduced later in the series. More details coming.
Deco joins the series in Book Two. Details are being kept under wraps for now — but the name is a diving reference, which should tell you something about where this character fits in Cass's world.
The Setting
Lower Depths Dive, Key Largo
The series is anchored in Key Largo — the northernmost of the Florida Keys and the self-proclaimed Diving Capital of the World. Lower Depths Dive sits at the less-glamorous end of the marina: a little sun-bleached, a little scrappy, and exactly where Cass wants to be.
Lower Depths Dive
Cass's dive shop. Runs charters to the major wrecks and reefs, certifies recreational divers, and rents gear. The kind of place that's been there long enough to have regulars.
USS Spiegel Grove
A 510-foot Navy landing ship deliberately sunk in 2002 to create an artificial reef. One of the most famous wreck dives in the world — and the site of the death that opens Book One.
The Benwood
A freighter that sank in 1942 after a collision. A shallower, more accessible wreck that's become a fixture of Keys diving. Cass knows it the way she knows her own shop.
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park
The first undersea park in the United States. The reefs here are the reason people come to Key Largo to dive. Cass has been diving them for eight years.