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Daytona Beach #1
The Sailor Who Washed Ashore
It's June of 1947 and the Spanish moss is twirling in the sea breeze beneath the limbs of a massive live oak somewhere in Daytona Beach, the World's Most Famous...
And Tom Jarrell is having a hard time coping with each day. He's recently been made a widower, having lost his wife and daughter (Sarah and Missy) in an accident out on the DeLand Highway back in April.
Fortunately, his good friend, Ronnie Grisham, is keeping an eye on his ole pal, making sure he eats and deposits the insurance checks in the bank when they come in. And, thanks to Sarah's foresight, two or three have shown up in the mail.
Finally, Tom manages to get himself together and takes the train north to visit his grieving in-laws and check into a sanitarium in Wisconsin to get help with his profound sense of loss and the fact that he's turned to drink to help numb the pain.
Six weeks later, Tom is back. He feels like a new man. And, on the advice of his friend, Ronnie, he decides to open up an office on Beach Street in downtown Daytona and put out his shingle as a lawyer.
One day, as Tom is dictating another letter to Allied Southern Insurance up in Nashville, Howie Kirkpatrick walks in the door. The kid, who is probably 21, if that, looks like he's been through the ringer. He's sunburned, needs a shave, and has a problem he hopes Tom Jarrell can help him with.
He's not sure, but he thinks he just might have killed his best friend, Skipper Johnson, out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Howie's arrival is like a pebble that starts an avalanche.
Dark secrets in sunny Daytona Beach are about to be revealed and who knows what might happen when they are.
* * *
Where Perry Mason meets Flamingo Road with a gay twist! Set in the sultry south and by the beach, the Daytona Beach series of novels are about Tom Jarrell, an attorney who's just starting his own private practice, and Ronnie Grisham, Tom's private eye, long-term friend, and new-found lover.
These stories begin with Tom and Ronnie finding each other after a devastating loss and continue as the two men bring together a kind of family that neither of them could have ever imagined having.
Come take a stroll along the World's Most Famous Beach right after the Second World War. Truman is president, the men are home from Europe and the Pacific, and the Red Scare is just getting started.
It's a time and a place that no longer exists.
Take a dive in and see if you might wanna stay for a while.
200 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 7, 2018
63 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
About the author
Frank W. Butterfield
123 books106 followersFrank W. Butterfield, not an assumed name, loves old movies, wise-cracking smart guys with hearts of gold, and writing for fun.
Although he worships San Francisco, he lives at the beach on another coast.
Born on a windy day in November of 1966, he was elected President of his high school Spanish Club in the spring of 1983.
After moving across these United States like a rapid-fire pinball, he currently makes his home in a hurricane-proof apartment with superior water pressure that was built in 1926.
While he hasn't met any dolphins personally, that invitation is always open.
Although he worships San Francisco, he lives at the beach on another coast.
Born on a windy day in November of 1966, he was elected President of his high school Spanish Club in the spring of 1983.
After moving across these United States like a rapid-fire pinball, he currently makes his home in a hurricane-proof apartment with superior water pressure that was built in 1926.
While he hasn't met any dolphins personally, that invitation is always open.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 4, 2018
The first in a new series by Frank W. Butterfield, introducing the characters and the setting (Daytona Beach, circa 1947). Tom and Ronnie went to school together, and when Tom enlisted (Ronnie got a 4-F classification), Ronnie took care of Tom's wife Sarah and their child Missy. Sarah and Missy died in a tragic car accident and Tom is slowly rebuilding his life, opening a law practice.
Their first case involves someone lost at sea, and while I didn't find the mystery particularly compelling, I liked the character building and look forward to future cases, as well as learning more about Ronnie and Tom's relationship. 3.5 stars.
Their first case involves someone lost at sea, and while I didn't find the mystery particularly compelling, I liked the character building and look forward to future cases, as well as learning more about Ronnie and Tom's relationship. 3.5 stars.
June 27, 2020
I don't really know what to do with this. It is, as described: Perry Mason, but if Perry and Paul Drake were sleeping together (sometimes) and in Daytona Beach instead of LA. I mean, fair enough.
(If *I* were writing Perry Mason fanfic, I'd pair Perry with Hamilton Burger, not Paul Drake, but to each their own, of course.)
The book does a good job with evoking the setting/time; the author has done a lot of research (and wants to show you it); I don't know much about Daytona other than my great-grandparents moved there in the 70s and we visited a few times when we were a kid, so cool. The plot was fine (dead, if you'll excuse the pun, obvious, but not insultingly so). I didn't particularly care if the main pair got/stayed together, but that wasn't quite the focus of the book anyway.
The issue I had was with *how hard* the author tried to make manifest the pervasive racism of Daytona in the 40s; the segregation was brought up right from the beginning note, and the only character added in and not paralleled in the original Perry Mason was a Black woman. Great! In fact, there's a whole history of the Black community in Daytona that was vaguely sketched out/alluded to in the book: Mary McLeod Bethune (about whom I knew not much more than the name and a vague sense she was an educator; everywhere I look the more I see how much my education failed me in terms of teaching about anyone other than white people) founded and ran a HBCU there, and the new character, Alice, attended there and was a teacher. But, for reasons left completely opaque in the book, instead of remaining in education, Alice has decided that the MC (=Perry) is just so special (because he's a gay widower?) that she should become his housekeeper, despite a stated distrust/like of (white) men. Her own queerness appears in asides about her and a girlfriend, but they are clearly just that, asides; her main emotional energy in the book is expended on taking care of the MC and cheering on him getting together with his (white) bff. I get that the segregation and discrimination of the time limited the options the author could think of for causing his (male, white) MC to interact with a Black character, but really? The best they could do was a *housekeeper* who exists narratively for no reason other than to support the MC and prove he is a Good, Non-Racist person?
And then there's the Della Street character who is functionally unchanged from Della in the original, except she is, perhaps, less interesting as a character.
So again, overall, IDK. I liked the setting, I liked the Perry Mason fanfic, but... it could've succeeded more where it was clearly trying.
(If *I* were writing Perry Mason fanfic, I'd pair Perry with Hamilton Burger, not Paul Drake, but to each their own, of course.)
The book does a good job with evoking the setting/time; the author has done a lot of research (and wants to show you it); I don't know much about Daytona other than my great-grandparents moved there in the 70s and we visited a few times when we were a kid, so cool. The plot was fine (dead, if you'll excuse the pun, obvious, but not insultingly so). I didn't particularly care if the main pair got/stayed together, but that wasn't quite the focus of the book anyway.
The issue I had was with *how hard* the author tried to make manifest the pervasive racism of Daytona in the 40s; the segregation was brought up right from the beginning note, and the only character added in and not paralleled in the original Perry Mason was a Black woman. Great! In fact, there's a whole history of the Black community in Daytona that was vaguely sketched out/alluded to in the book: Mary McLeod Bethune (about whom I knew not much more than the name and a vague sense she was an educator; everywhere I look the more I see how much my education failed me in terms of teaching about anyone other than white people) founded and ran a HBCU there, and the new character, Alice, attended there and was a teacher. But, for reasons left completely opaque in the book, instead of remaining in education, Alice has decided that the MC (=Perry) is just so special (because he's a gay widower?) that she should become his housekeeper, despite a stated distrust/like of (white) men. Her own queerness appears in asides about her and a girlfriend, but they are clearly just that, asides; her main emotional energy in the book is expended on taking care of the MC and cheering on him getting together with his (white) bff. I get that the segregation and discrimination of the time limited the options the author could think of for causing his (male, white) MC to interact with a Black character, but really? The best they could do was a *housekeeper* who exists narratively for no reason other than to support the MC and prove he is a Good, Non-Racist person?
And then there's the Della Street character who is functionally unchanged from Della in the original, except she is, perhaps, less interesting as a character.
So again, overall, IDK. I liked the setting, I liked the Perry Mason fanfic, but... it could've succeeded more where it was clearly trying.
October 28, 2018
What fun - an entirely new series from Frank W. Butterfield - what can be better than that?
June 16, 2019
Living history of sorts
Since I now live in the Daytona Beach area, it's fun to read about places I can see. I did the same when I read books based in NYC. I'm going to see what are in the places of the addresses I have from the book. Thanks. I know the early years, anything before 2000, it seemed as if you were Gay there was something wrong, well I personally am glad mostly that has changed and shame on those who haven't. This series and the Nick series gives me hope for the friendlier people.
Since I now live in the Daytona Beach area, it's fun to read about places I can see. I did the same when I read books based in NYC. I'm going to see what are in the places of the addresses I have from the book. Thanks. I know the early years, anything before 2000, it seemed as if you were Gay there was something wrong, well I personally am glad mostly that has changed and shame on those who haven't. This series and the Nick series gives me hope for the friendlier people.
May 17, 2023
The Sailor Who Washed Ashore (Daytona Beach 1)
By Frank W. Butterfield
Published by the author, 2018
Five stars
I have been a Frank Butterfield fan since the start. I see Nick Williams and Carter Jones as sort of my imaginary gay dads. Eddie Smith and Whit Hall are the mystical and legal heirs to the WilliamsJones legacy. But to this point, I had never read one of the Daytona Beach books, not understanding how they fit into this fictional literary family I’d created for myself.
As soon as I started the first of this series, “The Sailor Who Washed Ashore,” I was totally caught up in it. Partly this is due to the central roles of Ronnie Grisham and Tom Jarrell, who were already known to me through other books in the Nick and Carter universe. What struck me as I worked my way into the first book, knowing the long complicated story that ties Ronnie to Tom, is that this is sort of a parallel narrative to Nick and Carter’s own story—happening in the same time frame (Harry Truman’s presidency), but on opposite sides of the country.
One thing we are reminded of is that Florida, especially around Daytona Beach, was the Deep South. Alice, the Black woman hired by Ronnie to take care of Tom after his return from a grueling recovery in a Wisconsin sanatorium, provides a remarkable perspective on the world around Daytona in 1947.
This is also where we get a deeper perspective on the relationship between Ronnie and Tom, and the shared tragedy that both binds them together and separates them. Frank Butterfield, in his inimitable way, lets us into these lives—a small-town lawyer in a southern coastal resort, and his best friend since childhood. It is poignant and funny, and kept me thinking about all that has happened in America since the end of World War II.
Yeah, I know that each book will involve a mystery—maybe a murder. But as with all of Butterfield’s books, it’s the people I’ll be watching and learning to love.
By Frank W. Butterfield
Published by the author, 2018
Five stars
I have been a Frank Butterfield fan since the start. I see Nick Williams and Carter Jones as sort of my imaginary gay dads. Eddie Smith and Whit Hall are the mystical and legal heirs to the WilliamsJones legacy. But to this point, I had never read one of the Daytona Beach books, not understanding how they fit into this fictional literary family I’d created for myself.
As soon as I started the first of this series, “The Sailor Who Washed Ashore,” I was totally caught up in it. Partly this is due to the central roles of Ronnie Grisham and Tom Jarrell, who were already known to me through other books in the Nick and Carter universe. What struck me as I worked my way into the first book, knowing the long complicated story that ties Ronnie to Tom, is that this is sort of a parallel narrative to Nick and Carter’s own story—happening in the same time frame (Harry Truman’s presidency), but on opposite sides of the country.
One thing we are reminded of is that Florida, especially around Daytona Beach, was the Deep South. Alice, the Black woman hired by Ronnie to take care of Tom after his return from a grueling recovery in a Wisconsin sanatorium, provides a remarkable perspective on the world around Daytona in 1947.
This is also where we get a deeper perspective on the relationship between Ronnie and Tom, and the shared tragedy that both binds them together and separates them. Frank Butterfield, in his inimitable way, lets us into these lives—a small-town lawyer in a southern coastal resort, and his best friend since childhood. It is poignant and funny, and kept me thinking about all that has happened in America since the end of World War II.
Yeah, I know that each book will involve a mystery—maybe a murder. But as with all of Butterfield’s books, it’s the people I’ll be watching and learning to love.
December 16, 2018
Hidden gay life in Daytona Beach after WWII is only part of a mystery involving two men wh0 have had an private affair for years, a lawyer with a wife who knows and a daughter too young to know. The second man is a private eye who helped care for this daughter and wife when the lawyer was at legal war in Europe. Oddly, this first case involves two younger men, not long out of high school, younger men who have a less equal but just as hidden affair. When one disappears at sea, the other becomes the major suspect. As a mystery, Butterfield's novel is interesting, holding to some of the stylistic detective mysteries of the era.
July 14, 2024
Good story and fun characters
No spoilers here. I had concerns about this book when I started reading it, as I have issues with some period pieces. However, one I got into it I really enjoyed the characters and the story flowed well.
My only issue was the fact that there are quite a few editing errors, and a few did pull me out of the story trying to understand what the author was trying to convey. All in all, there were only a few spots that this happened, so I was able to enjoy the book.
No spoilers here. I had concerns about this book when I started reading it, as I have issues with some period pieces. However, one I got into it I really enjoyed the characters and the story flowed well.
My only issue was the fact that there are quite a few editing errors, and a few did pull me out of the story trying to understand what the author was trying to convey. All in all, there were only a few spots that this happened, so I was able to enjoy the book.
October 11, 2018
Saw this on Amazon. I've been avidly and stintingly reading your other series (I don't want to finish quickly, I want to savor it) and figured why not. Well, this is written equally well and with a lot of detail, but this time about Daytona FL in the 40's. I can almost feel like I've lived it yourself, but of course, I did not ... it feels so real. Both series make me feel like I'm glad I'm living now, even with all of the problems we seem to be having at this time.
Keep 'em coming.
Keep 'em coming.
November 7, 2018
First of a new series, set, as the numbering suggests, in Daytona Beach. Tom and Ronnie were mentioned in passing in The Derelict Dad - this novel recounts the start of Tom's legal practice after his wife dies in a car accident, with Ronnie acting as his investigator. The first real case has Tom defending a young man accused of murdering his (as it turns out) lover and close friend.
As usual the period detail is good - and the Perry Mason court scenes work as the climax.
As usual the period detail is good - and the Perry Mason court scenes work as the climax.
January 26, 2019
I live in Ormond Beach, FL which is right next to Daytona Beach and really enjoyed this story. The characters are interesting and well written. The details are great. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and look forward to reading more about Tom, Ronnie, Alice, Marveen and the rest. Thank you, Mr Butterfield for a wonderful new series.
I was particularly interested in Tom's feelings of guilt and how with his friends help he was able to overcome them.
I can't wait for the next one!!
I was particularly interested in Tom's feelings of guilt and how with his friends help he was able to overcome them.
I can't wait for the next one!!
March 31, 2024
I enjoyed reading the first in Frank W. Butterfield's Daytona Beach stories. Tom and Ronnie's simmering worked well throughout the book. They are both good guys with great support in their lives. I didn't expect Howie to end up working for them in the end, but once it happened it seemed logical. I give this one a 3.5.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 5, 2019
Great Start
This was an interesting start to what will hopefully be another good series. Good background history and character development make all the MCs familiar and memorable. Ends with a smile and a promise for the future.
This was an interesting start to what will hopefully be another good series. Good background history and character development make all the MCs familiar and memorable. Ends with a smile and a promise for the future.
April 20, 2019
A fun story
This is a well written story about a lawyer, his PI friend and a young man in trouble. The characters are likable and realistic, and the story line reminds me of a famous novel about a lawyer in a small town. Satisfying as a cold sweet tea on a hot summer day. Thanks
This is a well written story about a lawyer, his PI friend and a young man in trouble. The characters are likable and realistic, and the story line reminds me of a famous novel about a lawyer in a small town. Satisfying as a cold sweet tea on a hot summer day. Thanks
May 25, 2019
OMG . It doesn't get much better than this one .
I love a good story and this one met all the requirements. There is something in the story for everyone and I just love a happy ending .
I love a good story and this one met all the requirements. There is something in the story for everyone and I just love a happy ending .
August 21, 2022
This is a really good story. It did take me a bit to get into it though. The multiple POVs were a bit distracting at first but I eventually started to appreciate the views from the other characters. I'm looking forward to the next story.
June 23, 2020
I really enjoyed getting to know these characters and living in Daytona Beach in 1947. Very believable situation and good writing
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews