SYNOPSIS: Summer at Pebble Beach By Karen Hagestad Cacy
Former LA police detective Gus Boling found the perfect place to retire with his third wife - as a small town cop in Carmel. What possibly could go wrong?Welcome to Pebble Beach - expensive, exclusive . . . and evil. Former LA police detective Gus Boling keeps his past well hidden. There are those secret trips to his bank in Boise. A burn phone stashed in his den. Various guns and ammo, some registered, most, not. Only Boling has the key to a certain safe deposit box and to his own soul. Only Boling knows the full story, and he's not telling. Now, peacefully settled at the beach, the semi-retired cop has left the mean streets of LA for sleepy Carmel, California, where he spends his time writing speeding tickets and checking on neighborhood noise violations. Interrupting his quiet existence with his new golf cart and third wife, Boling is called back to action as he uncovers an unexpected core of corruption and decaying gentility in the normally placid town. Suddenly, a series of bloody crimes and misdemeanors break out in the exclusive Pebble Beach enclave. A Carmel-By-The-Sea summer like no other kicks off with the arrival of two tourists: a young, African-American pro basketball draftee and a serial killer 'wearing' live snakes beneath his black jersey.The tall African American NBA athlete gets the bends as he falls for an under-age spirited girl and attempts to acclimate to his new celebrity status among the 'locals.' Across town, the devious and malevolent 'Snake Man' worms his way into local society, succeeding in passing himself off as a clean-cut man with impressive connections. Protecting one man while chasing another, with his past threatening to overtake him, the cop must pay with his own blood. Naked and strapped down like an animal, he must choose between the right path and survival. Should he save a young pro athlete's future or place a band- aid over the town's murderous secrets? Along the way, Boling is 'helped' by the athlete's seemingly crazy voodoo aunt from Oakland. Together, the cop and strange psychic enlist the aid of a Saudi billionaire and a drop-dead gorgeous international call girl in their plan to hunt down the evil killer in their midst. With a forest fire engulfing Big Sur, and a hippie cabin exploding from the killer's bomb, 'Snake Man' once again adopts a new identity, seemingly escaping detection. But Mother Nature in the form of a violent Pacific Coast storm has other ideas as she answers the psychic's call to a canny black seal to save her nephew and heal the town's deep wounds. The serial killer, now disguised as a plain, non-threatening nanny, suddenly is swept off a rock into an angry ocean. The canny black seal circles 'her' drowning body, following it to the bottom of Monterey Bay. 'Snake Man' is delivered final justice, swiftly and irrevocably as a late summer storm washes away a small town's sins: Somewhere in Big Sur, a drugged out hippie chases a blind seagull named Willy the disc. 'Dr. Feel Good' goes back to dispensing his pricey, but illegal, remedies to his exclusive clientele. The forests of Big Sur begin to heal and stand guard over practitioners of New Age shenanigans. And a national audience cheers on a rising basketball star.Gus Boling's life returns to nabbing common criminals and traffic scofflaws. He gets back to working on his golf swing as his wife re-decorates their pricy new home on the ocean. In due time, the aging cop rechecks his burn phone and re-boards a Greyhound bus back to his bank in Boise.