Griffin’s writing, and himself, made him a Longboat treasure

Longboat Key has amazing people. H. Terrell Griffin was one of them.

The popular author of nine Matt Royal crime novels died Feb. 21 at age 76.

Griffin had a deep love affair with Longboat Key, and Longboat — many of its residents and the Longboat Observer — had a deep love affair with Griffin. It went on for 38 years.

That relationship turned more passionate than ever in 2005, after the debut of Griffin’s first Matt Royal novel, “Longboat Blues.” Prior to that, Griffin and his wife split their time between Longboat Key and Orlando, where Griffin practiced law. 

After the success of “Longboat Blues,” Lisa Walsh, then executive editor of the Longboat Observer, saw Griffin’s notoriety and popularity picking up on Longboat Key. He was our local literary celebrity. 

That sparked an idea for summer 2006.

News is hard to come by during Longboat’s slow summers. So Walsh propositioned Griffin about adding some spark to the summer editions of the Longoboat Observer: a weekly serial crime mystery that would run through the summer. 

Griffin didn’t hesitate. He was on it.

The serial mystery debuted July 6, 2006, with a front-page teaser promising: “It’s going to be a ‘Killer Summer.’” That was the title: “Killer Summer.”

And it was classic Griffin. You have to love this passage from the opening paragraphs of Chapter 1:

I had popped the top of my first Miller Lite when the little radio tuned to the jazz station suddenly jumped to life with the sonorous voice of an announcer telling me that somebody had just blown up some of the good citizens of my hometown of Longboat Key. 

I wasn’t too worried, because some of them needed blowing up, and I was quite sure that any half intelligent bomber would know whom to and whom not to blow up.

My cell phone rang. I knew that wasn’t going to be good news, but I answered it anyway.

“Jake,” a familiar voice said, “this is Charlie Goins. Somebody just blew up the planning and zoning board.”

“Anybody hurt?”

“Not anybody important. We lost two board members, and Town Hall’s a little worse for wear, but we can fix it.”

I finished the beer and popped another one.

“Who did it?” I asked.

“We’re thinking terrorists.”

Griffin made it a “killer summer” for Longboat Observer readers all right. As the series progressed, editor Walsh received phone calls from Longboaters offering bribes to her to send them advance copies of the next week’s installment. 

“One man called and said he was going into the hospital the next week and couldn’t wait to read the next installment. I know you have it,” he told her, offering to pay her for an early peek. She told him: “Why don’t you have your wife bring the Longboat Observer to the hospital?”

Afterward, Walsh called Griffin to report the commotion he was creating. Griffin said he was getting the same calls — readers offering him bribes to send them advanced copies.

Griffin’s popularity on Longboat and elsewhere in the crime novel world mushroomed. He wrote nine more Matt Royal novels. In June 2016, Griffin agreed to an encore of the summer serial in the Longboat Observer. This time it was called “Trouble in Paradise,” 13 installments we dubbed “another zany adventure featuring protesters, pot and a peacock killer.”

If you have a love of Longboat, you need to read Griffin’s nine novels. Not only will Griffin’s writing deepen your appreciation and fondness for Longboat Key, but you will grow a greater appreciation for a fun guy you knew and loved, or you will wish you had met one of Longboat’s wonderful treasures.