Englewood Author Ray Hazel Publishes 5th Novel
On a quest to resurrect Florida’s crime history, author and Englewood resident Ray Hazel published his fifth novel in the Lemon Bay series this fall. Since book one, Hazel’s historical fiction novels have both challenged and excited readers to understand the nuances of Florida’s crime history as a safe haven for corruption.
Encapsulated by a life of love and loneliness, Hazel presents the life of Harry in the latest installment of the Lemon Bay series, “Undercover FBI Music Man,” a complicated, bloodstained love story that intimately describes the internal emotional struggles he fought to control while revealing the consequences of time as an undercover agent.
Born and raised in a small town along the Saint Lawrence River in New York, Hazel’s passion for writing began with several articles related to hunting, fishing and trapping, later to find his true passion for historical fiction during retirement. After spending a lengthy amount of time as a Florida resident, Hazel’s culmination of uncovered secrets and the stories behind those secrets are found in each of the Lemon Bay novels.
“It took me about 20 years of living down here before I felt comfortable writing about the history. Over time, as I was writing my other novels about the demographics and country, I started to research and talked to people who were — and are — still living that history,” Hazel said.
While some may believe in the state’s idealistic history, Hazel uncovers a much deeper history of survival, in which all cards, both legal and illegal, were on the table.
“I’ve found sources that were alive, and if not, their families are, or sources that have found me. If you get into the shadows of it, it’s really amazing how people have survived and how Florida has been built, the history here is amazing,” Hazel said.
In an unlikely fusion of two sources, Hazel’s “Undercover FBI Music Man” is derived from the experiences of two people — an aspiring, gifted musician that returns home to Englewood and an undercover FBI agent involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, a 13-day confrontation between the U.S. and Soviet Union. This crisis brought unprecedented fear to a community in the direct path of a strike.
In a beautiful harmony, Hazel connects the stories of a wide-eyed music man who lives a double life blended with romance, suspense and unforgettable storytelling. Since his first installment of the Lemon Bay series, Hazel said he’s found his research on resurrecting Florida’s crime history has challenged him to share factual information coupled with emotions.
The complete Lemon Bay series started with Hazel’s “Moonshine Over Lemon Bay” in 2022, blending the tales of rum running in the Roaring Twenties up and down the Gulf Coast.
“It would be idealistic to think Lemon Bay is a little sleepy fishing village with a drinking problem. The other part of the equation is a lot of people would quit fishing because they could make more money bootlegging, so that’s where this all started. People trusted me to tell their stories, along with my own, and you would not believe what I’ve uncovered,” Hazel said.
In 2023, Hazel wrote “Lemon Bay’s Hidden Secrets” set in the 50s and 60s detailing an Englewood’s view surrounding the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War and the assassinations of President Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King and Sen. Robert Kennedy.
Hazel released “Lemon Bay Ticket to Paradise” in 2023 and “Cocaine Cowboys” in 2024, followed by “Undercover FBI Music Man” this year with more to come on the horizon from Englewood author Ray Hazel.
Learn more about the Lemon Bay series at rayhazel.com. “Undercover FBI Music Man” is now available at Beyond the Wave and Culture Coffee on Dearborn Street.
