Hugo Sandoval Eco-Mystery
2 primary works
Book 1
When the natural world and the build world collide, the earth needs a good building inspector…
In this first case in the new Hugo Sandoval Eco-Mystery series, an old-school San Francisco building inspector must reluctantly venture outside his beloved city and find his sea legs before he can solve the mystery of how a 90-ton blue whale became stranded, twice, in a remote inlet off the North Coast.
Set on the turbulent Mendocino Coast against the backdrop of a failing fishing fleet and illegal cannabis grows, Sandoval encounters roadblocks and lies as he grapples with the connection between a red tag posted on the historic Chicken Cove ranch and the decomposing marine mammal at the foot of its cliffs.
Debilitated by more than a few idiosyncrasies, reluctant media darling Hugo Sandoval is a people’s hero, fighting the good fight in a modern era where development and climate change butt heads – and where each requested permit attempts to eclipse the old San Francisco Sandoval loves.
Book 2
When rising seas threaten to submerge an endangered barrier island off Florida’s Gulf Coast, Hugo is plunged into his next case 2,300 miles from home.
The Blind Key is the second adventure in the Hugo Sandoval Eco-Mystery Series and takes the building inspector to Southwest Florida where he uncovers another collision of our ravenous culture with the environment.
Lured to the tiny barrier island of Blind Key off Florida’s Gulf Coast under the ruse of a fishing trip, Hugo leaves his beloved San Francisco waterfront to join his best friend Harrison on a chase to unravel the dreams of an exotic artist, the fate of a legendary fish shack, and the destiny of three Cuban refugees, all while consuming, at least for Hugo, an inordinate amount of Gulf shrimp and rum.
Reeling from yet another controversy at the Department of Building Inspections and the sudden unearthing of his father’s cold case file, San Francisco’s preeminent building inspector soon encounters in Florida the same problems he left back home—insatiable development, climate change, and betrayal.
With his wife Carmen, his assistant, the splendid Sara of Otis Street, and the indominable Harrison behind him, Hugo dares to find the link between Blind Key’s archeological past and its fragile ecosystem before high tech pirates and his personal Moriarty in disguise as sea level rise catch up.