Overview

Pirates of Key West is the true story of author Kelly Ryan Harriger, who found himself pulled into the seductive, illicit, and exhilarating world of smuggling in the wild and woolly 1980s in Key West and the Caribbean. Although he'd planned to just do one trip for the experience and some quick money, he was easily lured into more trips with the promise of more money and the autonomy to pick his sailboat crews. Over the course of two years, working for a man who was financed by the Colombian cartel, he progressed from running marijuana shipments from the Caribbean to Key West to transporting cocaine from Miami to his own distribution network in Key West. The lifestyle took its toll, and he found himself drawn deeper into daily drug and alcohol abuse. After being busted on his third trip to Jamaica, he knew the smart thing to do would be to retire, but the author wasn't ready to quit until he'd reached the end of his rope. The chronic drug and alcohol abuse finally took its toll, and as his life began to spiral out of control, he finally found the strength to walk away and start a new life.

Full Product Details

9798888193341

Table of Contents

Reviews

""The thrill of high-stakes adventure amid a breathtaking tropical backdrop in Pirates of Key West is enough to hook any adventure lover in Harriger's true story of smuggling on the high seas. But the heart of the story is in Harriger's internal struggle as a young man determined to push himself to the limits just to see how far he can go. Anyone who has ever thrown caution to the wind, or anyone who has ever wanted to, will love this book."" -Jessica Weible, author of Dead Letters: Delivering Unopened Mail from a Pennsylvania Ghost Town ""William Faulkner once said that even in the folly of youth, we know that nothing lasts. Perhaps no one understands that better than Kelly Ryan Harriger. Harriger's memoir is a tale of excess and risk, a maritime saga told with brutal honesty and introspection. That he lived to tell is nothing short of amazing. Without a doubt, Pirates of Key West is a wild ride, and one that the reader will long remember."" -Rebecca Titchner, author of A Ghost Comes Calling: An Adoptee's Journey to Understand the Sister She Never Knew

Author Information

Sort by Kelly Ryan Harriger grew up in a military family that rarely stayed put for more than a few years at a time when he was young. His father was an Air Force base commander, and his mother a former Marine turned journalist. He spent much of his early life near the sea, first in Hawaii, and then in the Florida Keys, and developed a deep love of the ocean and boating during those formative years. He always dreamed of returning to the ocean, and upon leaving college in Texas, he returned to the Keys, determined to make a life for himself while living the boating life and writing about it. He partially succeeded at making that dream a reality, and eventually gave it up to return to college and move into the field of marketing and advertising, where he became a copywriter and editor with ad agencies and marketing groups. He eventually landed a job with the William Morris Agency in Los Angeles as a book analyst and story consultant for five years. Upon leaving Los Angeles, he returned to his family home in Pennsylvania, where he turned his writing efforts toward personal interests. He's written several books and three screenplays, and continues to focus on new projects, including a novel and a historical book based on the exploits of an ancestor who'd been captured by a native Pennsylvania tribe during the Revolutionary War. In his spare time, he enjoys bicycling, motorcycling, hiking and camping in the northwestern Pennsylvania wilds.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available