Former New York cop and Federal Prosecutor Max Brady has returned to his hometown of Fort Lauderdale, his emotions locked in cold storage after the death of his beautiful young wife in the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11. Brady is determined to mind his own little beach bar business, and stay out of the fight his friends are waging against greedy developers and corrupt politicians at the height of South Florida's real estate boom that's about to go bust. Then, as a behemoth hurricane approaches, motels start burning and friends start dying. Enter Rose Becker, aka Madame Butterfly, a feisty beauty who has become the Joan of Arc of the resistance movement. Rose is not only trying to rescue Fort Lauderdale Beach, but also Max Brady's grieving heart. In a story that sweeps from the white beaches of Florida to the alligator infested Everglades, Max and Rose are locked in a deadly struggle to save the beach, their friends and, ultimately, each other. Joseph Collum is the recipient of more than 100 major journalism awards during his career as an investigative reporter, including the DuPont-Columbia Award, two George Polk Awards and five Investigative Reporters & Editors Awards. His reports have led to a Congressional inquiry on elder care, saved the lives of people denied adequate medical care, prevented hundreds of low income homeowners from being evicted, and resulted in the imprisonment of dozens of corrupt public officials. He was the first reporter in America to expose the widespread practice of racial profiling (the Oxford English Dictionary credits Collum with coining the term "racial profiling"). His final assignment was at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001 and the days immediately following the collapse of the World Trade Towers. In fact, Collum's account of the tragedy was excerpted in the book, Covering Catastrophe. Visit Joseph on the Web at www.josephcollum.com