Wrecker

Wrecker is set in Key West, Florida. The name “Key West” refers to both a city and the small island that the city is partially on. The city of Key West, located at the end of a chain of islands called the Florida Keys, is the southernmost city in the contiguous United States. It is actually closer to Cuba than it is to the South-Florida city of Miami. The island of Key West is part of the City of Key West, which also includes sections of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, and Sunset Key.

The original occupants of Key West are the Calusa people. Black freedom-seekers fleeing from slavery in the South, British settlers from the Bahamas, and Black and Indigenous peoples from Cuba and the Bahamas arrived in Key West throughout the 1800s. Over time, industries that took advantage of the island’s location and tropical climate sprang up: fishing, cigar-making, shipwreck salvage, and smuggling are all important to the island’s economic history. The protagonist of Wrecker, Valdez Jones, is part of a multiracial family that has historically participated in salvage work—and he accidentally gets mixed up with modern-day smugglers.

The racial diversity of Key West sometimes resulted in racist violence.