He built his career managing other people’s crises. He never planned on becoming one.
Fernandina Beach, Florida. Summer, 1978. A beach bonfire. A fight. And Mason Carlisle — local star, golden kid, the kind of boy a small town never forgets — dead by morning.
The case went cold in days.
Dan Foster walked away that night with sand in his shoes and a secret he’s carried for sixteen years.
Now it’s 1994, and the tide is coming back in.
When the Carlisle case is suddenly reopened, Dan’s carefully constructed life begins to crack. He’s built one of Jacksonville’s most respected public relations firms — he knows better than anyone how to shape a narrative, protect a reputation, and contain the damage. But there’s no playbook for this. No strategy that works when you’re the one being accused.
As the walls of Fernandina Beach close in, old loyalties fracture, buried truths surface, and the people Dan trusts most begin keeping secrets of their own. What begins as a ripple becomes a reckoning — one that will cost far more than his career.
Cold Tide is a debut legal thriller steeped in the salt air and shadowed history of Florida’s Amelia Island, where the past doesn’t stay buried and justice, when it finally arrives, leaves nothing untouched.
“The truth is like the tide — no matter how long it’s held back, eventually it comes in.”
Available at independent bookstores and libraries nationwide through Ingram Content Group.
