My great-great grandfather, Captain Henry M. Walker, was a Tampa Bay ship pilot in the 1890s. He lived on Egmont Key with his wife, Louisa. In 1900, while Louisa was away in Massachusetts visiting relatives, Captain Walker was found dead in his room on Egmont Key. The official conclusion was that he had taken his own life, but his friends and colleagues were sure that he had been murdered. His son, Fred, who lived across the bay at Cockroach Key ("Walker's Key", in the novel), was found dead three months later under equally mysterious circumstances. His friends were sure that he, too, had been murdered.
After the tragedies, Captain Walker's widow, Louisa, built a home at 141 Second Street North, where she spent her winters until her death in 1918. The Morgan Stanley tower now covers that location.
After learning everything I could possibly learn about the lives of the Walkers at Tampa Bay, I wrote Walker's Key. It's a murder mystery based loosely on everything I learned.