About the book

About Death in Deep Water: An Aristotle "Soc" Socarides Mystery

“Kemprecos … writes sharp, readable prose and certainly knows how to paint a portrait of the Boston/Cape Cod environs.” –Booklist A Dirty Little Secret Aristotle Plato (Soc) Socarides has a business card as unusual as his name: he’s a private investigator, a commercial diver, and a fisherman operating out of Cape Cod. It’s the perfect résumé when the corporate owners of a marine theme park desperately need someone to prove their star attraction—a ten-ton killer whale named Rocky—is innocent in the murder of trainer Eddy Byron. In Death in Deep Water, the third of the Socarides PI mystery series, Soc goes undercover at the Oceanus aquatic park, closed when ticket sales tanked after the death of Byron. Picketed by the radical animal rights group Sentinels of the Sea and beset by unfavorable publicity, Oceanus no longer looks attractive to the Japanese conglomerate that’s been eager to buy it. Millions are at stake. Soc’s employers want him to clear the whale as a homicide suspect, get to the bottom of why Byron died and help convince the Japanese to close the deal. Easier said than done, since Byron turns out to have been an unpleasant fellow, a heavy drinker who used outdated and cruel methods to train his animals. When the former PR director of Oceanus dies hours before a scheduled meeting with Soc, it becomes evident that if Rocky is a killer, he’s got a two-legged assistant. It doesn’t take long for Soc to find himself swimming in the dangerous waters of the aquatic park business, where he discovers the “dirty little secret” everyone knows but nobody talks about. The stress of performing for the public in an unnatural habitat is making dolphins and orcas aggressive, turning these amiable aquatic clowns into potential killing machines. Every show that brings in families eager to watch a trainer ride the back of a killer whale is a tragedy waiting to happen. As if he didn’t have enough on his plate, Soc will have to deal with a family crisis. His Uncle Constantine is in town, determined to relive the glory of his hard-hat days, when he was one of the most successful sponge divers in Tarpon Springs, Florida. With the help of a beautiful dolphin trainer, Soc will learn a painful lesson: that when it comes to apex predators, a nosy private detective is at the bottom of the food chain. Paul Kemprecos is the author of nine novels in the Cape Cod-based Aristotle “Soc” Socarides private detective series. His debut book, Cool Blue Tomb, was awarded a Shamus by the Private Eye Writers of America for best original paperback. Shark Bait, the eighth book in the series, was nominated for the same award. He was the first series co-author to work with Clive Cussler and wrote eight best-selling NUMA Files novels in collaboration with the “Grandmaster of Adventure.” In addition to stand-alone thriller Killing Icarus, he authored two adventure novels featuring Matinicus “Matt” Hawkins. The Minoan Cipher was nominated for a Thriller award by the International Thriller Writers. His short story, “The Sixth Decoy,” appeared in two anthologies, Nothing Good Happens After Midnight, and “Best Mystery Stories of the Year, 2021, edited by Lee Child, along with literary luminaries Stephen King and Joyce Carol Oates. www.paulkemprecos.com

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