Thorn Mystery / Red Sky at Night / James W. Hall

Thorn, Key Largo’s most heroic fishing guide, confirms his reputation as a self-proclaimed saviour of Florida’s ecosphere when he avenges the killing of 11 dolphins. The dolphins belonged to Thorn’s friend Roy Everly, who used them as therapeutic swimming companions for sick people until someone snuck into his healing centre and cruelly and elaborately slaughtered them. Why would anyone want to kill the harmless, friendly, restful dolphins? Endorphins, Roy decides; the killers tortured them to flood their brains and spines with miraculous painkilling chemicals, then harvested the endorphin-rich organs. It’s only natural that in his search for information about the suspected killers, Thorn questions his old pal Dr Bean Wilson and Wilson’s anaesthetist son Bean Jr, Thorn’s childhood friend and rival. But what’s natural isn’t what’s good this time, because Bean Jr, a pain management researcher who runs a VA clinic under the watchful (if unofficial) eye of the local DEA chief, is the bad guy who stages an incident that seemingly paralyses Thorn’s legs. He keeps Thorn in his Key West clinic while he waits to ship him off to the yacht where he conducts his (so far horribly unsuccessful) endorphin experiments.