The Keys

When troubles mount, monotony metastasizes and relief is nowhere in sight, have you ever considered just saying “screw it” and fleeing life’s miseries? Most people have - few actually do. Quint not only considers ditching his cheating wife and dead end job for a tropical escape. He does - and heads for the Keys. After finishing two tours of duty as a Navy SEAL, Quint had longed for an ordinary life away from death and brutality. However, his post-service American dream becomes nothing more than a deep sleep and he finds himself longing for a sense of purpose, a mission. He begins his new life tamely enough – as a charter boat captain in pursuit of the legal limits for his clients. But soon events converge to thrust Quint into a race to find the world’s most valuable treasure while extracting himself from a shipwreck, rogue naval forces, and from the pursuit of a vile cadre of pirates and thieves themselves committed to snatching the treasure from the grasp of ancient history or from anyone who gets in their way.

When troubles mount, monotony metastasizes and relief is nowhere in sight, have you ever considered just saying “screw it” and fleeing life’s miseries? Most people have - few actually do. Quint not only considers ditching his cheating wife and dead end job for a tropical escape. He does - and heads for the Keys. After finishing two tours of duty as a Navy SEAL, Quint had longed for an ordinary life away from death and brutality. However, his post-service American dream becomes nothing more than a deep sleep and he finds himself longing for a sense of purpose, a mission. He begins his new life tamely enough – as a charter boat captain in pursuit of the legal limits for his clients. But soon events converge to thrust Quint into a race to find the world’s most valuable treasure while extracting himself from a shipwreck, rogue naval forces, and from the pursuit of a vile cadre of pirates and thieves themselves committed to snatching the treasure from the grasp of ancient history or from anyone who gets in their way.

Frank J. Wilem, Jr., is an entrepreneur living in Gulfport, Mississippi with his wife, Dee Dee, and daughter, Brittany. Frank’s love for the sea blossomed during his high school years at West High in Torrance, California when a friend convinced him to snorkel off Lunada Bay in Palos Verde. When it was his turn to use the mask, one look beneath the chilly Pacific waters and he was hooked. After graduating from Texas A&M with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, the call of the ocean led him to the University of Miami where he earned a Masters degree in Ocean Engineering. Frank worked in the R&D departments for two Fortune 500 companies before his love of the ocean led him to join Computer Sciences Corporation at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. He left there to become a founder of Triton Systems, Inc., which he and his partners grew into a $100 million company and the nation’s largest manufacturer of automatic teller machines. With the sale of Triton, Frank purchased his sportfish boat Vixen and pursued his passion for bluewater fishing. Most days he and Captain Eric Gill can be found in the northern waters of the Gulf of Mexico or the Bahamas, chasing billfish, tuna, wahoo and dolphin. The Keys is Wilem’s first book.