Maddie's Gone

About four years ago in Key West, a Jack Russell terrier disappeared after chasing a chicken under a house. The dog's fate was a mystery for more than two weeks. Flyers posted by the dog's owner on store windows, telephone poles, and walls around Key West announced "Maddie's Gone." In this fictional account of the search for Maddie, a cash reward for the dog's return ensures that scoundrels, nutcases, and regular people of Key West are pulled in to the search for Maddie, with unintended, and sometimes fatal consequences. Key West itself is a leading character in "Maddie's Gone." As the little terrier waits in a trap no one can see, her owner searches the back streets, alleyways, the historic cemetery and other of the island's nooks and crannies . Embedded between the chapters in Maddie's tale are self-contained short stories in which the little terrier appears briefly during her accidental adventure: A Key West High School student worries her boyfriend is trying to sleep with her little sister; a homeless addict must struggle to find her place in heaven; an old-timer relives his wife's demise aboard a shrimp boat 40 years earlier; and a Key West boy comes face to face with the men who would slay an American president. The short stories span the length and breadth of the island's history and culture.