The Dark Side of Paradise blends together Richard Kerr’s professional experiences from his over-thirty-year career as a high-ranking official in the CIA with his idyllic life as a Florida retiree living in beautiful Vero Beach. Using his involvement in a local writing group as a common thread weaved through the stories, the author shares tales that explore the inner workings of the mind and examine good vs. evil. How do we decide between right and wrong? What do we do when we think no one is watching?

Richard Kerr crafts short stories that are unsettling, amusing, whimsical, and illuminating. Divided into four sections, the book begins with spy-centric tales, moves to stories of surprise, segues into tales of death, and finishes on a lighter note. All the while, regardless of the section, the author’s writer group and some of its members are weaved in and out of the stories to provide a common bond.

Only someone of his unique background could provide such an enlightening and intriguing look inside the mind of a CIA intelligence official as filtered through captivating tales that remain with the reader long after the last page has been turned.