The Author's Blog
Louis Berry Writes
First chapters of every novel, weekly installments of The Everglades, and reflections from the author's desk.
The Everglades — Weekly Chapters
The Everglades — Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Fifteen confronts the darkest face of the evil at the heart of the novel. Out of care for readers, it is not reproduced on the blog — but remains an essential part of the story, available in the complete novel...
Read the note →
The Everglades — Chapter Fourteen
1959. Miccosukee Chief Buffalo Tiger watches developers and corrupt politicians strangle his people's land — and, inspired by one man who once stood against a coup, looks abroad for an unlikely ally in the fight for sovereignty...
Read Chapter Fourteen →
The Everglades — Chapter Thirteen
April 1957. Twelve years after coming ashore, the conspirators install their own man as Mayor of Miami — and a scientist from Operation Paperclip lays out the full, decades-long plan to turn a free people against itself...
Read Chapter Thirteen →
The Everglades — Chapter Twelve
September 22, 1955. Colonel Von Unterscheisse drives north to the Chattahoochee state hospital, where a single trusted nurse becomes the Nazis' newest instrument for destabilizing society from within...
Read Chapter Twelve →
The Everglades — Chapter Eleven
September 20, 1955. As Hurricane Ione threatens Miami, a military coup in Argentina topples Peron — sending shockwaves through the Nazi network and leaving Hochstühl and Von Unterscheisse suddenly rudderless...
Read Chapter Eleven →
The Everglades — Chapter Ten
1954. Major Vetter arrives at the Miami warehouse — a ghost from Berlin bearing chilling news. The Nazi plan now has a medical component, and the American population is the target...
Read Chapter Ten →
The Everglades — Chapter Nine
1951. Both Hochstühl and Von Unterscheisse took American brides. It was part of the plan — but a journey to Buenos Aires and a scientist the world hoped to forget would change everything...
Read Chapter Nine →
The Everglades — Chapter Eight
1949. The Copa City Nightclub — Hochstühl and Von Unterscheisse attend a show by Desi Arnaz, seething at the joy and multiculturalism they are determined to destroy...
Read Chapter Eight →
The Everglades — Chapter Seven
1949. Johnson Billie makes his final stand against the Nazis in a desperate bid to rescue children from the underground tunnel beneath the Miami warehouse...
Read Chapter Seven →
The Everglades — Chapter Six
December 14, 1947. At the Biscayne Bay marina, the Nazis recruit Harry Northrup — planting seeds of corruption that will echo across generations...
Read Chapter Six →
The Everglades — Chapter Five
January 1947. Nazi sleeper cells have been given a deadline — and the General unveils a sinister new plan involving Miami's waterfront development...
Read Chapter Five →
The Everglades — Chapter Four
December 1945. Johnson Billie searches for his missing brother and discovers a hidden tunnel beneath the Nazi warehouse — and something far worse than drugs...
Read Chapter Four →
The Everglades — Chapter Three
August 1, 1945. The warehouse nears completion. The Nazis begin plotting their erosion of American society — and Von Unterscheisse delivers his first act of urban destruction...
Read Chapter Three →
The Everglades — Chapter Two
The four Nazis arrive at their Miami warehouse and begin planning their intergenerational conspiracy to subvert American society from within...
Read Chapter Two →
The Everglades — Chapter One
July 21, 1945. Two Nazi war criminals come ashore at Flamingo Point in the Florida Everglades, beginning a multi-generational conspiracy against America...
Read Chapter One →First Chapters — All Novels
Chapter One — The Everglades
July 21, 1945. The Everglades was arguably the most natural ecosystem on Earth. Through every assault upon the landscape, its resiliency...
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Chapter One — Madeline
Passion for Madeline never waned within the only man who'd loved her ethereally. The writer, who'd spent his entire life searching for her...
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Chapter One — Seeking Trinity
The sound of the canon from Key West's Mallory Square echoed faintly in Adam Phillip's consciousness. He stood overlooking the Gulf of Mexico...
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Chapter One — Task Force Vigilante
Madeline McVie was born into a family with two older brothers and a younger sister. Her brother Danny was four years her senior...
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Chapter One — The Surrency Affair
The Fruit Growers Express began operations on March 18, 1920, in Jacksonville, Florida. Men labored, loading and unloading refrigerated boxcars...
Read Chapter One →Florida Field Notes — Nonfiction
The Ashley Gang — Motivated by the Common Man?
The outlaw "King of the Everglades" was, to the poor crackers who knew him, no mere bandit but a folk hero striking back at the banks and the powerful. Reign of terror, or strikes against the leviathan?
Read the Field Note →Florida Chain Gangs — Legalized Slavery
From the prison camp of Cool Hand Luke to the turpentine swamps where Martin Tabert was flogged to death — the convict-lease system that rebuilt slavery in Florida under a new name.
Read the Field Note →