A headless body turns up on a beach.
Former sheriff's detective Frank Pounds is dragged from medical retirement because he may know the identity of the body.
Dressed in an irreverent t-shirt, a pair of board shorts, and rainbow-painted huaraches showing off his pink toenails, he stands over a familiar body with a distinctive tattoo.
As he glares up the beach to the pier lined with camera vultures with long lenses, it turns personal.
Baer Charlton, a best-selling author, is a Social-Anthropologist. His many interests have led him around the world in search of the unique.
As an internationally recognized Photojournalist, he tracked mountain gorillas, been a podium for a Barbary Ape, communicated in sign language with an Orangutan named Boolon, kissed a kangaroo, and had many wild experiences in between. Or he was just monkeying around.
His love for sailing has led him to file assignments from various countries, as well as from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean aboard a five-mast sailing ship. Baer has spoken on five continents, plus lecturing at sea.
Within every person, there is a story. But inside that story, even a more memorable story. Those are the stories he likes to tell.
There is no more complex and wonderful story than those coming from the human experience. Whether it is a Marine finding his way home as a civilian or a girl who is just trying to grow up, Mr. Charlton’s stories are all driven by the characters you come to think of as friends.