Danger Beyond the Reef
A Novel
by
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“Taso, that mean bastard’s really starting to piss me off,” Alexander complained to his brother, Taso. His irritation was due mostly to a long night drinking beer and sleeping on the boat’s hard deck. “He’s been hanging around out there with a hungry look in his eye,” he added. “Yeah, yeah,” replied Taso dismissing Alexander’s concern with a casual wave of his hand. “It probably matches the hungry look in mine since you choked down most of the food last night along with the beer.” he added with a grin. As an incoming freshman at Tarpon Springs High School, Taso Karastinos’ friends had pared the name Anastasios down to an easier-on-the-tongue ‘Taso’ and that was OK with him. Anastasios was a tough burden to carry through high school among his non-Greek classmates. Members of his family reluctantly agreed to his wishes to be called Taso at least in public. A friend’s name was Anastasios and was called Taso. He liked that. He was proud of both his heritage and name honoring St. Anastasios the Great, Patriarch of Alexandria, who was influential in defining the early doctrines of the Christian faith. His name had been passed down every other generation for longer than he knew. Taso just didn’t want the non-Greek xeni laughing every time they struggled to pronounce it. Taso and his younger brother, Alexander, were into their second day fishing the Middle Grounds, a wide expanse of deep water home to big game fish some 90 miles off Florida’s west coast city of Tarpon Springs. The big Shortfin Mako shark had been cruising near the surface for almost two hours several hundred feet off the stern of the Kalymnos II, Taso’s 26’ Stamas sport fishing boat. Taso and Alexander weren’t worried…not just yet!
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About the Book
Tall and handsome, twenty-six-year-old Alexander Karastinos is passionate about life and living it. Popular with his friends in the small Greek community of Tarpon Springs, Florida, he works hard in the dangerous profession of sponge-fishing. Alexander enjoys spending his free time with his gorgeous and exotic Cuban girlfriend, Silvia Morales.
But his comfortable life and his relationship with Silvia are suddenly turned upside down by his father’s surprise announcement at a family dinner. Quietly, the patriarchs of the Karastinos and Demetrias families have arranged a marriage between Alexander and Melena Demetrias. Neither of them believes they are ready for marriage, but Alexander and Melena understand the consequences of refusing their parents’ wishes.
In the days and months that follow, Alexander and his older brother Taso come to grips with their personal challenges while crossing paths with a dangerous man whose legacy for hating all Greeks places young Alexander in grave danger. Only a mysterious old Greek woman in black stands between Alexander and the evil she knows he faces.
About the Author
Harvey Alexander Smith worked forty years in marketing communications. He published his first novel, El Idolo: In Search of a Legend, in 2002 and is writing a third book, Margaritas Are for Tourists. A freelance copywriter, Smith has also published song lyrics and poems. He lives in Tarpon Springs, Florida.