Brief

When a widow contacts reporter Jake Johnson about a passenger ship sinking over a decade ago, he doesn't expect much. Upon visiting the small town where the boat sank, however, Jake becomes embroiled in the mystery that has torn a family and a town apart. Nothing is as it seems on the surface as Jake discovers old secrets, government interference, espionage, and uncovers a massive conspiracy all centered around a sinking ship.

What We Liked

This was a fascinating, fresh mystery with a surprising but earned ending. There were juicy plot twists, steamy romances, and rewarding resolutions.

Film: As a film, this would be a mystery with the fun feel of Knives Out but the gravity of something like Heart of Darkness. This would be a blockbuster that would leave audiences questioning everything after watching it.

TV: As a television show, this would be a miniseries about the investigation where each episode would show the incident as Jake learns about it, from an individual's point of view.

Key points:
-Mystery
-Plot twists
-Romance
-Rewarding ending
-Strong characters

Synopsis

Reporter JAKE JOHNSON gets called into work by his boss, JOHN. A widow is there--a woman who recently lost her husband to a heart attack, but mentally lost him long ago. She claims that before her husband died, he was trying to prove that something fishy had gone down with a boat sinking ten years ago and that after he had rescued the lone survivor of the sinking ship, the coast guard had shipped him off somewhere to keep him quiet about it.

Jake isn't sure if he believes the woman's story or not but he's a good reporter and goes to the town where the lone survivor of the ship, JERRY BENSON, lived--Mayport, Florida. He goes on the pretense that he's reporting about the bad shrimping season. He tells his wife, ALICE, that he'll be back in the morning. Once in Mayport, he meets a waitress, JUDY BENSON--upon hearing her last name, he's shocked at the coincidence, and asks if she knew Jerry Benson. Judy becomes upset and then apologizes, saying that it's a long, sad story.

Jake finds himself attracted to Judy and makes plans to meet up with her later. She directs him to the local tavern and tells him to talk to a man named Skeeter. At the tavern, John learns Skeeter's version of events: Jerry Benson took his family out on labor day weekend with the plan to sink the boat and collect the insurance money, but something went wrong and BUBBA, Jerry's brother, wasn't able to rescue them in time, so everyone onboard died except Jerry, who got hauled off to the insane asylum. Judy arrives at the tavern and is furious with Skeeter, and promises to bring Jake to her father to hear the real version of events.

Judy and Jake sleep together, and Jake believes he is more in love with Judy than he is with his own wife. The next morning, Jake meets Bubba, Jerry's brother. Bubba tells him that they never planned to sink the ship, The Crippled Pelican, as they loved that thing. Bubba said that Jerry took the whole family including Bubba's wife and infant child for a vacation fishing, and Bubba was supposed to meet up with them but couldn't get there in time due to a malfunctioning piece on his own ship that he failed to get fixed in time. He tells Jake that the Coast Guard declared Jerry a raving lunatic and unfit to be seen by anyone, so Jerry has been in a mental asylum for years without any contact with Bubba or Judy or anyone of the outside world. Bubba tried with many lawyers over the years to see Jerry, to no avail. Jake tells Bubba that he may be able to pull some strings with his newspaper and get in to see Jerry. Bubba gives Jake a note to give to Jerry to prove that Jake is trustworthy.

John is able to get Jake into the asylum to see Jerry, but Jake has to pretend that he's a doctor. TEDDY, the nervous orderly, allows Jake into Jerry's room. Jerry is dying of cancer and is very weak, almost unable to talk, but he slowly regains his strength as he tells his version of events. Jerry tells the same story as Bubba, but time runs out, and Jake has to pull some strings to come back for more information the next day. The next day, Jerry tells Jake about how their ship, The Crippled Pelican, picked something large up in its trawling nets--at first, they thought it was a whale, but soon, they realized it was a submarine. The passengers of the submarine asked to come aboard, and Jerry and the family welcomed them aboard, only to discover that they were not American seamen, but Russians. The Russians killed everybody onboard except for Jerry and his infant daughter, who escaped on a hatch. The Russians burnt up The Crippled Pelican. Jerry was stranded in the ocean for two days, during which time he lost his infant daughter. Eventually, the Coast Guard picked him up. Jerry was placed in an insane asylum and visited by some government workers who told him that the U.S. couldn't afford to get into WWIII because of a boating accident, so the President had decided to let Jerry and his daughter die, but they had to lock Jerry up so that no one would hear his story because of the international outrage it would cause. Teddy ushers Jake out and Jake is pursued by government officials--while on the run, he hears an APB put out that says that Jake is an escapee from the asylum who has killed a man. Jake makes it to Mayport, where he delivers a letter from Jerry to Bubba and tells Bubba and Judy Jerry's version of events. They take the ship out to the coordinates on Jerry's paper and discover a barnacle-covered Russian rifle at the bottom of the sea, proving Jerry's version of events. Bubba declares that now that he knows the truth, the hatred has evaporated from his heart, and Jake decides that the juicy story isn't worth putting Judy and Bubba through more pain. The Coast Guard boards their boat and Jake tells them that they were unable to verify any of Jerry's claims and believed him to be insane. The Coast Guard also informs the group that Jerry died that morning. The uniformed men make everyone sign papers that they won't speak of this ever again.

About The Author

Michael Strickland was born in Mayport, Florida. He was in the restaurant business most of his adult life, operating the locally famous Strickland seafood chain, dating back to 1935.