2023 FAPA Award Winner

The Grave with Greener Grass—“I don’t know how to say this without sounding like the stereotypical greedy relative.” This statement thrusts Sly Harrell into a mystery that seems to have more dead ends than an undeveloped subdivision.

A descendant of one of Florida’s first families pursues a family ritual with the promise of a treasure at its solving. Annually, the senior living female of the heritage line is obligated to stand in front of a gravestone and recite from a letter passed from mother to daughter. The major clue: the grass covering the grave is always greener than those around it. But why? And after over a hundred years is the clue meaningless?

The potential heir believes she knows “in general,” where the grave is and what’s in it but needs to decipher a clue to prove her theory, and she wants Sly’s influence and help to solve the mystery. But they find what they did not expect: a body incased in phosphate lies on top of the patriarch’s coffin. Is it a true dead end?

Two 124-years-old corpses aren’t the only clues. Another clue stands unrecognized in plain sight. When Sly finally unravels the secret, he has one last challenge to reclaim a treasure of gold coins . . . and to stay alive.

DL Havlin