“Captivating, suspenseful, entertaining novel! This
thriller kept me on the edge of my seat while I was reading it! Would highly
recommend to those who enjoy this genre.”
At midnight, in the darkness of a deserted hotel, comes
a scream and a splash. Eighty-five years later, workmen uncover a skeleton in
an old elevator shaft. Who is it, and how did it get there? To find out,
Charity Snow, ace reporter for the Longboat Key Planet, teams up with Rancor
Bass, best-selling author. A college ring they find at the dig site may prove
to be their best clue.
Although his arrogance nearly exceeds his talent, Charity
soon discovers a warm heart beating under Rancor’s handsome exterior. While
dealing with a drop-dead gorgeous editor who may or may not be a villain, a
publisher with a dark secret, and an irascible forensic specialist, Charity and
Rancor unearth an unexpected link to the most famous circus family in the
world.
This is John Ringling and friend at St. Armand's Circle (which he also built).
The
Pit and the Passion: Murder at the Ghost Hotel, is set on Longboat Key, on the Gulf Coast
of Florida. It is one of the barrier islands that protects Sarasota from the
bad moods of the Gulf of Mexico. In the early 1920s John Ringling, of the
Ringling Brothers Circus, began a concerted effort to promote the area. He
planned housing developments, hotels, the St. Armand’s Circle shopping
district, and other elements to draw northerners to Florida. His last great
endeavor was the Ritz-Carlton at the tip of Longboat Key. Construction began in
1926…and ended in 1926. The hulk sat moldering until 1964 when it was finally
torn down. To locals it was known as the Ghost Hotel. Below is an aerial view of the Ritz-Carlton in 1952.
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