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CHUM: Blood Red — book cover
CHUM
Blood Red
Jaws meets Knives Out on a Red Sea dive boat

The family wants the money.
The shark wants the family.

Twenty-two relatives. Seven nights at sea. One rule: leave the boat and you lose your share.

↓ The story
CHUM: Blood Red cover

Buck Tolliver sold boats in Fort Pierce, Florida, his whole life. He wanted to go out the way he lived: on somebody else's boat, with the whole family finally paying attention.

So Buck is riding to the Red Sea in a brass diving helmet, on the shelf above the coffee machine of a dive boat called the Bahiya. Twenty-two relatives and hangers-on are riding with him. There's a third wife who vlogs, a son-in-law with eleven hundred dives who will tell you about every one of them, a grandson who owes a man in Tampa, and a son who got seasick at the dock.

The plan is to pour Buck into the water at Daedalus Reef at sunset on Friday the 13th. Then the executor, who gets paid on completion, reads the will.

Leave the boat before it gets back to port, and your share goes to whoever's still aboard.

Five million dollars. Fourteen heirs. Before the coffee's cold, Rick, the eldest son, has wiped the dive briefing off the whiteboard and written RESIDUE ÷ 14. Do the math. They all do.

What nobody mentions is October. A man from the tour company stood on this same swim platform and fed a shark fish heads three nights running, and filmed it. On the third night, she fed back.

She's still down there. She remembers the boat. She's about to meet the Tollivers, and frankly, she's the one who should be worried.

By Friday, the family has stopped asking who's missing. They're asking what each one was worth.

One boat. Twenty-two people. No getting off.

The Bahiya.

Seven nights out of Hurghada, Egypt, to reefs you can't see from land. Everyone signs in at breakfast. Leave the boat and you leave the money.

HurghadaHome port. Be aboard when the boat comes back.
The BrothersTwo islands. Landing restricted. Wave at the soldiers.
DaedalusSunset, Friday the 13th. Buck goes in the water.
ElphinstoneLast reef before home. Check the tag board.

This is the Dive Companion Edition. It follows a real week aboard: Hurghada, the Brothers, Daedalus, Elphinstone, and home. Every chapter opens with a dive card for that day's site.

DIVE CARD — HURGHADA, MARINA BERTH

Monday, 9 November · 18:00 · Boarding

No diving tonight. Welcome, cabins, safety briefing. The boat sails before dawn.

Liveaboard rule one: shoes go in the basket at the gangplank. You will be barefoot until next Monday.

This part is real
0From shore to Daedalus. You can't see land.
0Different oceanic whitetip sharks counted at this one reef.
Oct–NovWhen they come. The book's week is 9 to 16 November.

Source: IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group, Daedalus Reef ISRA factsheet (2023).

“She learned the boat.”

The Bahiya · 9–16 November

The tag board.

Red before every dive. Green when you're back. Twenty-two tags went up on Monday.

TOLLIVER JE.Jess, Buck's granddaughter. Dive pro from the Keys. Counts everyone twice.
TOLLIVER D.Darlene, Buck's widow. Wife number three. Vlogs as Darlene Dives.
TOLLIVER R.Rick, the eldest son. Already did the math.
PETTIBONE G.Gordon, the executor. Paid on completion.
HASKETT D.Duane. Eleven hundred dives. Ask him.
HASKETT G.Gavin. Owes a man in Tampa.
TOLLIVER V.Vern. Seasick at the dock.
TOLLIVER T.Trey. Filmmaker. It's for Sundance.

Not on the board: Buck, in a brass diving helmet above the coffee machine. And a dog named Chum under the dive bench, who is officially not on the boat.

Jess's logbook · she counts everyone twice

Mon 9 Nov · Hurghada, alongside · No dive
Aboard: 22

Tue 10 Nov · Gota Abu Ramada · 2 dives + night
Aboard:

Rules of the Reef · 1979

Twelve rules.

Written by Maureen, Buck's sister. Four of the twelve:

Rule 2
Never dive alone at night, especially if your father asks you to.
Rule 7
Never feed the fish. Bread counts.
Rule 11
Never swim after supper. Never ring the gong.
Rule 12
Come home with everyone you brought.

The book's first line breaks Rule 11: “Lyle Brannock rang the dinner gong at twenty to ten, two hours after dinner.”

Before the boat sails

Read it first.

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Every book, a new family and a new place

The CHUM series.

Book One · Cape Cod
Blood Relatives

The sharks are real. Your family is worse. A flooding island, a trained great white, and a family that leaves one at a time.

Get Book One →
Book Two · Lake Como
Voto di Sangue

There are no sharks in Lake Como. Tell that to the wedding.

Get Book Two →
The card game
Blood in the Water

The real card game. Hidden traitors, too few life preservers, and somebody gets fed.

See the game →
Get the free advance copy →