Former Wildlife Officer Rick Larnerd Blends Gasparilla Legend with Modern Florida Crime Fiction in New Novel

Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk

Rick Larnerd has published a new novel, "The Mystery of Gasparilla Bay," a crime thriller set on Florida’s Gulf Coast that pairs the legend of pirate Jose Gaspar with a present-day story of poaching, pursuit and a hostage standoff in the backwaters. The book is out now through Covenant Books.

The novel follows Andy Warden, a veteran Florida conservation officer tracking an alligator poacher named Bart Thibodeaux through the same swamps where Gaspar is said to have buried millions in stolen treasure. According to the publisher’s description, Thibodeaux’s pursuit of easy prey turns into a hostage crisis when he seizes a vacationing mother and her two children who are themselves treasure hunting in the area. The woman, the description notes, proves to be more than he bargained for.

Larnerd draws on three decades of law enforcement experience for the book’s setting and detail. His thirty-one years as a wildlife officer across Pennsylvania and Tennessee were followed by an eight-year tenure as police chief in his Tennessee hometown, and he served as an active-duty infantryman earlier in his career. That background, per the publisher, informs how the novel depicts conservation efforts and the people who do it.

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

The Jose Gaspar legend Larnerd draws on has shaped Gulf Coast lore for more than a century, most visibly in Tampa’s annual Gasparilla pirate festival, and continues to draw treasure hunters to the region despite no confirmed historical evidence that the pirate existed. "The Mystery of Gasparilla Bay" is available through Covenant Books’ website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play and the Apple iTunes Store, and at bookstores.

Studio CarryOnHarry sees the real hook here less in the Gaspar legend than in Larnerd’s own background: a career wildlife officer writing a poaching thriller is a pairing that tends to produce the kind of procedural detail readers notice.

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