Mills’ fi shing boat.
Mills looked back at his fi rst book, “Reasonable and Necessary” that was published in 2000.
It involves a murder of a doctor being sued for malpractice who was tarpon fi shing in Boca
Grande, he said. A bomb was detonated on a charter boat to make it look like a “boating
accident” to hide the actual reasons for the murder. His second book, “The Manatee Murders,”
was written in 2002 and involves three beheaded manatees that are discovered fl oating
in Pine Island Sound. Detective Doug Shearer, a Lee County detective, investigates the
decapitations starting with local commercial fi sherman who is arrested. “The Objector” is the
third book Mills wrote in 2004, featuring Lee County Sheriff’s Offi ce Detective Doug Shearer,
who vacations with his girlfriend at a Cabbage Key fi shing tournament, and discovers a body
fl oating in the water. In 2007 Mills wrote “Sworn Jury,” where a lawyer is found murdered in a
Model T Ford in the historic Edison Home.
After The Trophy Wife Divorce – his fi fth book – Mills wrote “The Hooker, the Dancer and the
Nun” in 2016, “Pineland Gold” in 2017 and “Cayo Costa Cross” in 2019.
“Cayo Costa Cross” is a modern-day divorce fi ghting over a 100-year-old letter describing
a buried gold cross near the cemetery on Cayo Costa,” Mills said. “Ironically, the prologue is
set in 1910 near the Cayo Costa quarantine dock, on the northeast
end of the island. All ships had to stay at anchor for 14 days to check
for tuberculosis and yellow fever before they could enter the port of
Boca Grande. My character had to escape the quarantine to bury a
gold cross because some people were trying to steal the cross from
him.”
A question that arises in most minds would obviously be where
Mills gets his ideas. As a practicing attorney, it must be diffi cult to
keep the line between reality and fi ction straight, after all.
“I get ideas for my books from three main places,” he said. “The
fi rst would be my actual court cases and other cases I have watched
over the years at the Lee County Courthouse. The second place
would be happy hours with my friends at fi shing tournaments at
Author, John D. Mills
Cabbage Key and ‘Tween Waters. The third would be my imagination.”
Mills said he has recently started research for his ninth book, which involves the murder of a
witch on Captiva. Stay tuned. For more information, go to pineislandsoundmysteries.com. All
of his books can be found on Amazon.com.
A GASPARILLA MAGAZINE • March/April • 2021
/pineislandsoundmysteries.com
/Amazon.com