In the Shadow of the Lone Cypress

Settle’s novel tells the story of a long-ago Florida as seen through the eyes of Dr. Drew Duncan, who first comes to the state as an Army volunteer during the Spanish American War. From Tampa he goes to Cuba, then back to his hometown of Baltimore. After earning his medical degree, he decides to make Florida his home, and he eventually establishes his permanent medical practice in Moore Haven. The novel paints vivid pictures of South Florida people, places and things, and the climax is reached with the 1926 hurricane that wreaked such havoc on the Lake Okeechobee area.