Former Game Warden Turns Three Decades of Conservation Work into Florida Crime Novel

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Rick Larnerd has published a new novel, "The Mystery of Gasparilla Bay," a crime story set on Florida’s Gulf Coast that pairs a present-day poaching case with the region’s pirate lore, according to the publisher’s announcement. The book is out now through Covenant Books, available in bookstores and through major online retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books.

At the story’s center is Andy Warden, an experienced Florida conservation officer who pursues Bart Thibodeaux, an alligator poacher, through Florida’s swamps and Gulf Coast backwaters. According to the publisher’s description, Thibodeaux’s crimes take a darker turn when he takes a vacationing mother and her two children hostage during a treasure hunt of their own — one tied to the buried fortune of nineteenth-century pirate Jose Gaspar, whose legend has long drawn treasure hunters to the area. The description frames the story as one built on the question of whether the woman he’s underestimated will turn the tables on him, and whether Warden can close the case before it’s too late.

Larnerd’s own background runs close to his protagonist’s. He spent thirty-one years in law enforcement, including service as a wildlife officer in both Pennsylvania and Tennessee, and eight years as police chief in his Tennessee hometown, according to the announcement. He also served as an active-duty infantryman in the military. The publisher’s materials describe that record as the basis for the procedural detail in the novel, particularly the conservation officer’s perspective on poaching and the backcountry terrain where it plays out.

"I wanted to blend the romance of pirate legend with the reality of modern-day conservation challenges," Larnerd said in the announcement, adding that the aim was a story that "keeps readers on the edge of their seats while honoring both history and the natural world."

"The Mystery of Gasparilla Bay" is published through Covenant Books. Larnerd has said on social media that the book has already drawn its first reader review, which he described as encouraging.

Studio CarryOnHarry is always interested in writers who put a working career on the page rather than research alone — a three-decade law enforcement record is the kind of detail that tends to show up in a book’s texture, not just its marketing copy.

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