Tampa Book Buzz

man overboard by lara diamond

Local author Lara Diamond recently wrote to let me know about Man Overboard, her noir-style mystery e-book set in 1920s Tampa. According to Diamond, some of the characters in the book are based on Burgert Brothers photos and “The book is a product of many years of research and, while it is fictional, it based on the mysterious real-life disappearance of DP Davis, the developer who created Davis Islands.”

Diamond was the editor of the Weekly Planet for five years and won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for her work there and for a story she wrote about Cuba. Prior to that, Diamond worked for the Arts Council of Hillsborough County, where she wrote a five-part PBS series on Florida’s historic fantasy architecture, which won an Emmy. Diamond’s employer requires that she write under a pen name. She picked Lara Diamond because “it made me think of Sam Spade, my favorite noir character of all time.”

Tim Ohr, author of Florida’s Fabulous Natural Places and Under the Gun writes that Man Overboard is “a vastly entertaining, compelling read, and almost as great a pleasure as freshly made flan. Lara Diamond’s mystery carries the reader backwards in time to Prohibition in Ybor City with great historical accuracy. It is impossible for me to look at my hometown Tampa and its tradition of Gasparilla in quite the same way once completing Man Overboard.”

To learn more about Diamond, her book and the Burgert Brothers photographs that inspired her, visit www.manoverboard.us.