FrankHaddleton.com

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FrankHaddleton.com

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  • Home
  • Genealogy as Time Travel
  • The Real Walker's Key
  • Egmont Key
  • James M. Burgess
  • Harwich Port
  • St. Petersburg
  • How to Purchase the Book
  • Walker's Keys
  • I need your help!
  • Inspirations
  • Old Houses
  • The Real Walkers
  • Webster
  • Dyer
  • Walker's Key Home Page
  • Other stories
  • Subleasing
  • Rental applications, etc.
  • Sarasota House for Rent
  • More
    • Home
    • Genealogy as Time Travel
    • The Real Walker's Key
    • Egmont Key
    • James M. Burgess
    • Harwich Port
    • St. Petersburg
    • How to Purchase the Book
    • Walker's Keys
    • I need your help!
    • Inspirations
    • Old Houses
    • The Real Walkers
    • Webster
    • Dyer
    • Walker's Key Home Page
    • Other stories
    • Subleasing
    • Rental applications, etc.
    • Sarasota House for Rent
  • Home
  • Genealogy as Time Travel
  • The Real Walker's Key
  • Egmont Key
  • James M. Burgess
  • Harwich Port
  • St. Petersburg
  • How to Purchase the Book
  • Walker's Keys
  • I need your help!
  • Inspirations
  • Old Houses
  • The Real Walkers
  • Webster
  • Dyer
  • Walker's Key Home Page
  • Other stories
  • Subleasing
  • Rental applications, etc.
  • Sarasota House for Rent

The cover image for Walker's Key was created by Mikhael Lindstrom.

Walker's Key is historical fiction based very loosely on my research into the lives of my great-great grandfather, Captain Henry M. Walker, and my great-grandfather, Frederick Walker.  See the top right of this page for links to the material in this website.  Thanks for visiting!

The Walkers' house on Indian Hill

This photo from 1900 shows the home of Frederick Walker, my great-grandfather, on Indian Hill (a/k/a Cockroach Key), near present-day Ruskin, Florida.  My great-grandfather is seated at the right.  My grandfather is standing at the far left.  


Walker's Key Audiobook

Here is a five-minute sample of the Walker's Key audiobook read by Jason Keller, Linda McGinnis, and Mary Catherine Jones, and produced by Voice Over Vermont.  Available at Audible, Amazon, iTunes, and many other audiobook retailers.

Kirkus Reviews

"A striking, multifaceted take on the family-secret novel. ...The writing here lends a strong sense of place to the proceedings, along with thorough—but not overwhelming—detail on ships, lighthouses, and the sea...With the initial murder mystery linking all these disparate elements together, this must-read novel maintains a consistent, compelling sense of tension and feeling. A well-researched mystery, punctuated by thrilling tension and deep emotion."        Kirkus Reviews

Read the full review at Kirkus Reviews

Bay Soundings

[Haddleton] deftly weaves diverse geographic and historical periods in a story that quickly pulls a reader in and holds their interest through to the very surprising conclusion. It was wonderful to learn more about the history of Tampa Bay reading this thoroughly enjoyable mystery.   

Bay Soundings

Read the full review at Bay Soundings

Blueink Review

Sibling rivalry, murder, and family secrets form the heart of Frank B. Haddleton’s engaging debut, Walker’s Key … Haddleton draws on his own family’s mysterious past and his obvious love of Florida’s West coast to offer a compelling, fast-paced mystery (think Dennis Lehane), an elegy to a bygone era, and an homage to the seafaring life … All told, Walker’s Key is for fans of nail-biting mysteries, who will find the story’s heart-pounding action hard to resist. 

BlueInk Review 

Read the full review at Blueink Review

Award-winning finalist in the Fiction: LGBTQ category of the 2019 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest.

Looking west from the landing at Walker's Key, my great-grandfather's island, in 1900 and in 2015.  St. Petersburg is in the distance.

The Real Walker's Key

The real mysteries

My great-grandfather, Fred Walker, died on Indian Hill in 1900.  The locals believed he was murdered.  I don't know for sure what really happened, and I suppose nobody can really know. The story in my novel is built around one possibility.  Curiously, the death of Fred's father, Captain Henry M. Walker, months earlier on Egmont Key, just across Tampa Bay, was also shrouded in mystery.

Egmont Key

Copyright © 2025 Frank Haddleton - All Rights Reserved.

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