Leona Bodie's new novel "Shadow Cay". Look for it at your book dealers today.
When industry icons sell their soul, ethical employees become huge liabilities. On the dark side of American industry, there is no more precious commodity than money. Sometimes lackluster financial statements, pessimistic stakeholders and global competition fuel greed and inhumanity. But, what happens to those who openly oppose the new order with its radically different interpretations of corporate progress?
Palm-fringed Miami with its gateway to Latin America offers two men in different businesses, two unlikely paths to fame and fortune. JaHart International, a highly acclaimed biotechnology company, creates state-of-the art medical solutions. The Salazar Network is the world’s most profitable enterprise. These powerhouses are about to collide.
The story starts far from corporate America. When the leader of an international terror nexus murders her parents, Madeleine Nesbitt, a young Bahamian girl with limited education and experience, learns more about the world in one day in a remote island, than she could possibly learn in a lifetime. Bent on avenging their deaths, she joins Rico Salazar’s criminal network and plots his ruination. Lurking in the shadows, Salazar’s best friend AJ Hartman runs JaHart, one of the top ten healthcare corporations in the world and one of America’s fastest growing businesses.
Lulled into complacency by his company’s sterling reputation, JaHart International’s newest employee Peter Duncan, in short order finds things aren’t what they seem. When the true picture unfolds, he finds that he’s thrust into an infrastructure fraught with corporate plots, fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and money laundering. These are the issues Madeleine and Peter must resolve in my novel, SHADOW CAY.
The main geographic settings are Neumans Cay, Miami, and West Palm Beach. Although it’s a remote island in the Exumas chain, previously unknown to many in the Americas, Neumans Cay is fated to become a household name. Fascinated by its natural beauty and strategic importance, the out islands beckoned to many beyond its native shores. Before long, those that came became so embroiled in Bahamian affairs that the area’s destiny was determined not by Bahamians at all, but by transplants who came from foreign shores. And in a far-reaching rippling effect, these interlopers forever changed the lives of many South Floridians when they defiled the budding medical device industry, resulting in the scandal of the decade.
Life and death, greed and humanity are all incorporated in my novel SHADOW CAY, a 100,000-word mainstream suspense with flesh and blood characters, exotic locations and plenty of plot twists like Iris Johansen’s BLIND ALLEY. SHADOW CAY is adult fiction that will appeal to men and women of all ages, especially the broad adult market that reads action/adventure/thriller novels involving deceit, intrigue, and clandestine operations. The secondary markets are a regional audience that enjoys stories with Florida/Bahamian settings and a niche cruising market interested in modern day piracies and nightmares at sea. With more than a million patients worldwide with implantable devices, this book should have global appeal.
The antagonists, Rico Salazar and AJ Hartman, exhibit steamy passions, greed, and a callous disregard for man’s humanity, but Madeleine and Peter emerge as heroes battling obstacles of gigantic proportions: Police corruption, corporate crime and a violent drug subculture.
The following is a brief narrative of the story.
The morning after a lone sailor disappears without a trace near Nassau, Caribbe, the finest hydrofoil in the Bahamas capsizes off the Highbourne Cay coast. Despite a string of tragedies and disappearances in their waters, Bahamian officials have no explanation, other than the victims are presumably lost at sea.
Eight years later, Bahamian-born Madeleine Nesbitt and her family on a fishing expedition venture too close to Neumans Cay. At midnight, unknown assailants attack them. The senseless assassination of her parents hits Madeleine hard. Soon she learns Columbian expatriate Rico Salazar has transformed Neumans Cay into a multi-billion dollar empire. He attributes his success to harassing the residents until many flee. Now he rules the entire island, while the Bahamian officials look the other way, thus enabling the international smuggling hub to flourish without the long encroaching arm of the law interfering.
Alone, desperate and angry, Madeleine vows to “even the score” and ruin Rico. Although people die and disappear as a direct result of his business dealings, she infiltrates the criminal enterprise and encounters the ruthless killer. But Rico’s untouchable and unstoppable. He’s a formidable enemy. No one’s ever crossed him and lived to talk about it.
With its gateway to Latin America, palm-fringed Miami offers Rico and his best friend AJ Hartman two unlikely paths to fame and fortune. Seduced by power, AJ is the maverick founder and technical genius behind JaHart’s highly acclaimed medical solutions. However, his father’s sins haunt AJ and steer his course in the business community. Always simmering under the surface are his demons, but all the world sees is his passion for providing high quality medical solutions.
From time to time Rico funnels “seed money” into JaHart. As a result of the funding and his own ingenuity, AJ builds a legitimate and highly reputable pharmaceutical and medical device conglomerate. Considering its Miami location, the company thrives and expands, becoming one of America’s most admired global enterprises. With only the vaguest explanation, AJ abruptly fires the head of quality assurance. Days later, Peter receives an unexpected recruitment call and is offered the JaHart leadership role. At the same time, on Neumans Cay Madeleine refuses to back off; revenge soon becomes obsession.
After a highly successful first year, Peter professed his loyalty to the company. He admires AJ’s passion for creating high-quality, innovative medical tools. However, when unusually large numbers of defective pacemakers are returned to the lab, Peter is mortified. He realizes something is terribly wrong. In short order, his admiration for AJ leaps from high regard to hero worship to downright disdain. He digs into his boss’ background, his business and his contacts, stumbling on a nightmare he doesn’t want to believe.
They fail. The pacemakers are killing the very patients whose lives they were designed to prolong. Peter finds out the medical devices purported to have a life expectancy of 10-15 years, barely survive 3 years. Smart, persistent and dangerously reckless, Peter suddenly finds himself battling AJ. They argue, and for the first time Peter sees AJ’s passion for innovative medical solutions as a show of financial power, rather than a simple desire to save lives.
And, at the same time intent on ruining Rico and his enterprise, Madeleine’s undertaking takes her to America. Strong and confident, she persists. Ultimately, she unearths Rico’s link to a Middle Eastern terrorist group and learns he’s laundering money through a Miami medical device company. Since the key to destroying the man and his network is exposing the front company, she infiltrates JaHart International, where secrets are revealed and allies are created. When her path crosses the maverick entrepreneur and a brilliant scientist, four lives are forever altered.
First, Madeleine fleeces Rico out of a quarter-million dollars, then temporarily cripples his operation with a fatal airplane crash. Finally, Rico understands Madeleine’s prowess. He also realizes he’s in love with her. Now he’s forced to accept the truth: he has chinks in his armor. But, Rico doesn’t know Madeleine is a DEA confidential informant.
Once Madeleine starts working for JaHart she’s incredibly impressed with Peter, the scientist responsible for integrity of the company’s medical products. They begin to work together toward a common goal. Suddenly in a quest to destroy her nemesis, she has an alliance and a co-conspirator. Madeleine remembers how terribly alone and afraid she felt the night her parents died. But most of all, she remembers vowing she’d never let herself be used again. After reinforcing that resolution, she dismisses her fears about Rico finding her and concentrates on exposing JaHart. At the same time Rico uncovers a clue to her whereabouts. When he finds her, he swears he’ll kill her.
Soon Madeleine and Peter’s work leads them to the dark underbelly of a notorious smuggling operation and a powerful, global medical device company. Pitted against Rico and an international terror nexus in a desperate race to save lives, their investigation leads them to the darkest side of a criminal network. Through their eyes, we see a web of deceit, a frightening glimpse into the dangers of implantable devices. With Peter’s help, Madeleine exposes misrepresentation and obstruction of justice at the highest levels of American industry, while terrorist and corporate security officials make repeated attempts on her life.
AJ kidnaps and tries to murder Peter, but Madeleine rescues him. Together, they gather evidence that verifies false labeling and substantiates AJ knowingly distributed 2,200 defective products and 6,000 corrosion-prone batteries from December 1996 to October 1998. Even more conscious of his responsibilities to protect the general public after the near-miss attempt on his own life, Peter leaks the JaHart scandal to an investigative reporter. This disclosure results in breaking news that prompts the State Attorney to file criminal charges of fraud, conspiracy and insider trading against AJ and the Executive Management team. Although the DEA raids his outposts, Rico suddenly surfaces. He ambushes Madeleine and Peter, but they fight back valiantly.P>