I received this book from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Wood's Revenge by Steven Becker continues the excellent Mac Travis series. The story is set in the Florida Keys. Mel is back for a stay with Mac on her late father's island.

As usual Trufante is the cause of all the trouble. To keep up his party life style with his latest love interest, he agrees to help a friend illegally fish an area during a high tide and storm. They manage to lose a net to a snag. It turn's out the fish have been spoiled by red tide (pollution) and they are in trouble with the fish processor who can't use the rotten fish.

When Mac returns with Trufante to retrieve the net, they discover the snag is on a sunken boat. They retrieve the net, but Mac plans on returning later to salvage the boat in that it is fairly new and in good shape. When he does salvage the boat, he and Mel discover a body in the boat. Rather than letting the authorities know about where they found the body, they released it somewhere else and notify the authorities of the floater they found.

It turns out the man was a fisheries biologist tracking the impacts of the red tide that is caused by pollution from the sugar industry in Florida. A hit woman from one of the big sugar industry owners comes to the Keys to try and take care of the problem before the authorities find out that the man was murdered and sampling locations were destroyed to prevent information on the red tide being released to the public.

This is where the story becomes interesting as Mac, Mel, Trufante, and Pamela (Trufante's love interest in the story) try to avoid being killed by the hit woman and discover the solution to the puzzle about what is going on. I will stop recapping the story here, because this the good part and I don't want to spoil the plot for any reader.

I have enjoyed every book in the Mac Travis series. From the stories, I learn a little bit about the history of the Keys and south Florida. Steven Becker does a good job of mixing these facts into the story line. ( )