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Gary Ruffin a guitarist and songwriter for the 70's rock band Smoke Rise, he co-wrote the first American Rock Opera, The Survival of St. Joan, which appeared on Broadway. This is his first novel. He lives just outside Atlanta.

Detective Samuel Cooper, "Coop" to all who know him, is the Chief of Police in Gulf Front, Florida, a sleepy little town with nothing to recommend it to tourists save a beautiful beach the locals are happy to keep a secret. Indeed, Chief of Police is quite a title given he is the sole detective on the force. It's a pretty easy gig all and all-in fact, there has never been a serious crime in Gulf Front. Until now.

When a young woman's body is found on the shore and an abandoned new Cadillac is found nearby, it causes a furor like nothing the town has ever seen. And that's before they've identified her. She turns out to be the daughter of a Louisiana Senator, and with her passing comes the Feds, the mob, and Agent Shelley Brooke. Things are never going to be the same again.

Publishers Weekly

At the start of Ruffin’s run-of-the-mill debut, the discovery of the half-naked body of Caroline Quitman, the 22-year-old daughter of Louisiana senator Harry James Quitman, on a pier in Gulf Front, Fla., presents the town’s police chief and sole detective, Samuel “Coop” Cooper, with his first serious crime in his 11 years on the panhandle town’s force. The murder of a possible witness raises the stakes. Coop, a former Tallahassee homicide detective, is perfectly willing to let the FBI take over, until he meets attractive FBI agent Shelley Brooke. When early clues suggest a New Orleans mob connection, Coop decides to go there and see what he and his NOPD buddy, Det. Neal Feagin, can dig up. As Coop tangles with Don Carmine Carrabba and the don’s henchmen, it becomes clear his investigative skills are a little rusty. Some humorous and romantic touches lighten a freshman effort that otherwise offers only familiar genre types (the corrupt politician, the brutal mob enforcer, etc.). (July)