Fiction Buzzard Bay Bob Ferguson 2012 Xlibris Corporation 622 pages Buzzard Bay is a huge story about a family that relocates to the Bahamas for a promising business opportunity that puts them in the middle of major criminal activity in the Caribbean.
Bob and July Green move to Andros Island, where they spent their honeymoon, to become a part of a farming project that was developed to provide fresh produce to local hotels.
While the couple navigates several obstacles to get the project off the ground, what they learn about the silent partners in the project rips their lives apart.
Bob and July meet in college in Minnesota.
After a quick courtship, the young couple marries.
July's father treats them to a honeymoon in the Bahamas where they fall in love with Andros Island.
The couple returns home, have their first child, and then relocate to Bob's family farm after his father becomes ill.
The couple has another child and work the farm after Bob's father dies.
Hard times hit the area, and Bob is not able to keep up with the mortgage.
Just as the Greens are at their lowest point, July's father tells them about an opportunity to establish a farm in the Bahamas.
The family makes the trip to Andros Island.
Problems with the operation surface quickly from the lack of funding to the attitude of the head of the operation.
Bob and July act as leaders of the group of farmers on the project.
When the head of the project suddenly walks away, the small group of farmers attempt to buy out the farm from the bank that holds the mortgage.
Unknowingly, the group becomes involved with drug dealers, paid killers, and sleazy business men seeking power and control over land that is used for the transport of drugs.
The Greens come in contact with a diverse group of people on the island, some who befriend them, and many more who are steeped in criminal activity.
Bob becomes a target for murder and eventually a key player in taking down the leader of the drug cartel.
This book is packed with action, sex, and violence.
From the opening of the book, Ferguson drops the reader in the middle of Bob Green's adventure.
The scenes are vivid and fast moving.
The large cast of characters should keep readers engaged in this story which has several subplots and moves frequently through the past and present.
The author presents major scenes from more than one characters' perspective.
This practice slows the story's momentum in some sections, and often fails to add additional information about the plot.
Ferguson places Bob in bizarre and dangerous situations that the Canadian farmer survives using creativity and wit.
But mostly, Bob is driven by his love for his wife.
Buzzard Bay is a tale of drugs, sex, and violence that features an ordinary guy as the hero of his family and the island he has chosen to call home.
Melissa Brown Levine for Independent Professional Book Reviewers