Walker's Key - by Frank Haddleton (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Award-Winning Finalist in the Fiction: LGBTQ category of the 2019 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest

As dawn breaks on a summer morning in 1900, Darby Walker, owner of a St. Petersburg, Florida, ferry service, sets out to check on his older brother, Tulley, whose lighthouse across Tampa Bay on Walker's Key has gone dark. The recent death of their father, a ship pilot based on Egmont Key, has been declared a suicide, but Darby knows better, and signs point to Tulley as the murderer.

Going back thirty-five years to Darby's birth in Harwich Port, on Cape Cod, Walker's Key explores the bitter sibling rivalry between overly kind, personable Darby and angry, isolated Tulley. While that sibling rivalry unfolds, Darby learns of a sibling rivalry generations earlier in his family, a rivalry that ended in murder. Of pivotal significance is Darby's grandfather, an abolitionist who rescued slaves from a Florida plantation decades earlier and initiated a family tradition of acceptance far broader than the Walker brothers realize when one of them maliciously exposes the other's private encounter.

When we arrive back in 1900, Darby works to figure out who has murdered his father. When he learns the killer's identity, he must find the inner strength to bring the killer to justice while also saving himself.

Review Quotes

Kirkus Reviews

Haddleton's debut is a striking, multifaceted take on the family-secret novel.

In the year 1900, Darby Walker makes the trek across Florida's Tampa Bay from St. Petersburg; his brother Tulley's lighthouse has gone dark, and their father is dead under suspicious circumstances. The timelines are split between this urgent present and the brothers' childhood, starting with Darby's birth in 1865. These sections provide background on the bitter conflicts between gregarious, sensitive Darby and boundary-pushing, standoffish Tulley, but they also delve deeper into the Walker family's roots and its history in Cape Cod. Haddleton's use of multiple time periods offers various perspectives on both Darby's and Tulley's backstories. Most strikingly, the novel outlines the life of the boys' grandfather, Nathaniel, a staunch abolitionist who once helped to free slaves from Florida plantations. Nathaniel's history in particular sets up powerful themes, connecting the family to the land and seas of Florida and Massachusetts, as well their participation in historical events and prejudices. Some paths, like Nathaniel's, are heroic, but others contain dark chapters that pit brother against brother, foreshadowing Darby and Tulley's present-day conflict. The nuanced exploration of these themes of compassion and strife would be enough to recommend the book, but it also drives the plot in the present as Darby questions Tulley about his role in their father's death. The writing here lends a strong sense of place to the proceedings, along with thorough--but not overwhelming--detail on ships, lighthouses, and the sea: "Darby only had to make it six miles across the bay....There were no passengers aboard to complain about the rough ride or about getting wet, and a little salt water on the boat didn't concern Darby in the slightest." With the initial murder mystery linking all these disparate elements together, this must-read novel maintains a consistent, compelling sense of tension and feeling.

A well-researched mystery, punctuated by thrilling tension and deep emotion.

Bay Soundings

[Haddleton] deftly weaves diverse geographic and historical periods in a story that quickly pulls a reader in and holds their interest through to the very surprising conclusion. It was wonderful to learn more about the history of Tampa Bay reading this thoroughly enjoyable mystery.