Fishing was his hook for book

When Capt. Don Anderson wrote his first mystery novel, he did what most writers do — he stuck with a subject he knew.

An avid angler since his teens in the Mission Bay area of San Diego, Anderson nurtured his love for the ocean during his days scrubbing out aquariums and working as a deckhand.

Now the Newport Beach resident sails around the world fishing.

His book’s protagonist also loves to fish, but during his worldwide angling adventures he finds himself caught up in all sorts of intrigue.

Anderson’s hero, Stan Rogers, is a successful software industrialist — think Bill Gates — who decides to help Third World countries improve their technology. He journeys around the globe to talk to heads of state and prominent corporate executives. One of the book’s messages is that some have tried to alleviate poverty in the Third World, “But there’s so much politics involved, it doesn’t seem much of anything is getting done. But if a man has his own money,” maybe more will get done, Anderson said.

The book’s protagonist and his crew, though, run into problems as they break new ground with the Third World governments.

The locations for the book include the entire California coast, from wine country to San Diego and even Newport Beach. It took Anderson nine months and a lifetime of research to accomplish.

Anderson made sure to include one of the iconic Balboa Peninsula spots well known to any sporting fisherman far and wide.

Rogers meets “one of his crewmen working on a sport fishing boat in Davey’s Locker,” Anderson said. “They run through the canal, and they run into some drug people along the way.”

The Locker’s staff was not that surprised to be featured in a novel, having been spotlighted on a number of shows, manager Chris Cunningham said. This is the first time, though, Cunningham could remember the shop being featured in a novel.

“There’s only two things more famous on the peninsula — the Fun Zone and the ferry itself,” Cunningham said. “Davey’s Locker is a fixture here on Main Street and in the sport fishing industry.”

The book, “Deadly Calm,” is available to order at www.barnesandnoble.com, www.bordersstores.com and www.amazon.com along with his first book, “No Skunks on My Boat: Secrets of an Offshore Fishing Junkie.”

For more information on Capt. Don Anderson, visit www.fish-hawk.com .