Lori Roy finds darkness, star power in ‘Lake County’

“Lake County” opens with the aroma of orange blossoms, but it’s not long before you catch the scent of death.

This book, the sixth historical thriller by St. Petersburg writer Lori Roy, captures 1950s Florida so evocatively you might break into a sweat while you read it. Or that could be a reaction to its tense and tightly woven Southern noir plot.

Roy’s five earlier novels, including the Edgar Award winners “Bent Road” and “Let Me Die in His Footsteps,” all have rural or small-town settings.