Amazon has been on my “list” lately for failing to be good stewards of my older books. There have been broken links. Old covers have resurfaced; new covers disappeared. An order I placed for a book for a friend has gone unfulfilled for almost two months.
Sorry for ranting, but I wanted you to understand what drove me to order a copy of The End of His Journey not long ago. It’s the second book in my Leslie Elliott mystery series and is based on a true story that happened in Boca Grande more than 25 years ago. It was a test.
To my surprise, it arrived in about three days, but not from Amazon. It was from ThriftBooks in Dallas, Texas.
As I flipped through the pages, I came across a colorful bookmark from the Johann Fust Library in Boca Grande, the setting for my mysteries. That was the first surprise. There was also a piece of paper I assumed was a sales receipt. I took a closer look and discovered it was a boarding pass for a flight on American Airlines from Charlotte to Sarasota, dated Wednesday, July 27, 2022. The name on the pass was Donna Moore.
My Donna Moore? The lovely and talented Realtor who has sold many houses for us in Boca Grande? The same Donna Moore who entertained us in her home for fabulous Thai dinners and a lovely Thanksgiving feast? I was incredulous.
I couldn’t reach Donna so I called her son, Jeff, and shared my find with him. He, too, was surprised but had a partial explanation.
“Mom was probably coming back from a trip to Nova Scotia and reading your book on the plane,” he mused.
But how did the book get from her hands to mine in a journey that took almost four years? It was a mystery for sure.
Jeff and I concluded that Donna stopped reading when her flight landed, marked her place on page 109 with her boarding pass and bookmark. She then stuck the book in her bag, fully intending to finish it when she got home. Business and life sidetracked her from further reading. Then, two months later, on September 28, 2022, the eye of Hurricane Ian passed over Gasparilla Island and Boca Grande, inflicting damage on many properties, including Donna’s beautiful home on the island’s east side.
As is always the case, clean-up after a hurricane was traumatic. Personal belongings had to be boxed up quickly so repairs could be made. According to Jeff, many items were sent to the Suncoast Humane Society where they could be resold to provide money for the group’s operations. Items that couldn’t easily be moved locally, like hundreds of books, were likely sold in bulk and shipped elsewhere.
That is how The End of His Journey, with the boarding pass and library bookmark intact, began its own trek across the country. It eventually arrived at the ThriftBooks center in Dallas where I assume it was placed on a list for resale by Amazon. Four years later, it arrived at my doorstep, complete with its own compelling story.
After speaking with Jeff, I realized there was only one thing left for me to do. I had to return the book to my friend, along with the boarding pass and the bookmark designed by island resident Judy Ikenberry.
As I handed it over to her, I offered this advice: “You might want to start over. I can’t remember a book I’ve been reading if I put it down for a couple of days. It’s been a lot longer than that.”
We both had a good laugh. An intriguing mystery was solved, and perhaps a new one was born. We’ll see.