Due: 5/30

Flush
by Carl Haaisen

The main conflict in the book Flush is the spat between Paine Underwood and Dusty Mulemen. Dusty and Paine were old boat neighbors, both of them were captains of smalls boats to help tourists. Then Dusty got rich and started a casino boat in an Indian reserve , that never had to go anywhere. He was suspected to have been keeping more than his fair share, and dumping the content of his sewage tank into the bowl. The sewage then washes down to the Thunder Beach where kids play, and turtles nest. Making dumping sewage not only gross but dangerous. The major start of the conflict was when Paine decided that he personally had to do something about Dusty since whenever the Coast Guard checked, Dusty was being tipped off. The best thing that Paine had thought to do was to sink the Coral Queen (Dusty's casino boat). And that wasn't such a good idea, since, it landed him strait in jail.

Not to say that Paine minded being in jail, he might have even enjoyed it. But his wife Donna did not, neither did his children Noah and Abbey. They all were worried and desperately wanted to help his cause. As time goes on more and more people get wrapped up into the conflict. And the plot gets more and more complicated. It's revealed that Noah's long lost grandpa is alive, when all thought he was and buried in South America. The Underwood's got a great help from an unlikely source in a trailer park. And, there are friends in unlikely places.

But in the end it's Paine and the Underwood family that pulls ahead. The Coral Queen finally got what it deserved, shut down, re-opened, and finally burned down. They suspected Paine originally of course because of the rivalry between the two. But then found all the Underwood's and the actual offender was the son of Dusty Mulemen himself!