Florida Crime Writers

This book examines 24 crime novelists who set their work in the Sunshine State. From James W. Hall’s Under Cover of Daylight in the Florida Keys, to Barbara Parker’s Suspicion of Betrayal in Miami to Tim Dorsey’s Florida Roadkill at Cape Canaveral and Tampa, these writers and their works span all of Florida’s 67 counties. A biographical sketch of each author precedes an interview by a critic who has immersed him- or herself in the novelist’s works, producing interview-essays of noteworthy perception and insight.

Examines Florida's legacy of fictional detectives and mystery writers, revealing why the center of crime shifted from Los Angeles to Miami. Contains chapters on Florida's crime and detective fiction through 1945, South Florida noir and the grotesque, and Florida film noir from Key Largo to Body Heat. Includes a bibliography of Florida mysteries, 1895-1996. For students of popular culture and mystery lovers. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK A modern classic of personal journalism, The Orchid Thief is Susan Orlean’s wickedly funny, elegant, and captivating tale of an amazing obsession. Determined to clone an endangered flower—the rare ghost orchid Polyrrhiza lindenii—a deeply eccentric and oddly attractive man named John Laroche leads Orlean on an unforgettable tour of America’s strange flower-selling subculture, through Florida’s swamps and beyond, along with the Seminoles who help him and the forces of justice who fight him. In the end, Orlean—and the reader—will have more respect for underdog determination and a powerful new definition of passion. In this new edition, coming fifteen years after its initial publication and twenty years after she first met the “orchid thief,” Orlean revisits this unforgettable world, and the route by which it was brought to the screen in the film Adaptation, in a new retrospective essay. Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more. Praise for The Orchid Thief “Stylishly written, whimsical yet sophisticated, quirkily detailed and full of empathy . . . The Orchid Thief shows [Orlean’s] gifts in full bloom.”—The New York Times Book Review “Fascinating . . . an engrossing journey [full] of theft, hatred, greed, jealousy, madness, and backstabbing.”—Los Angeles Times “Orlean’s snapshot-vivid, pitch-perfect prose . . . is fast becoming one of our national treasures.”—The Washington Post Book World “Orlean’s gifts [are] her ear for the self-skewing dialogue, her eye for the incongruous, convincing detail, and her Didion-like deftness in description.”—Boston Sunday Globe “A swashbuckling piece of reporting that celebrates some virtues that made America great.”—The Wall Street Journal

From the pine-tree lined rural highways of North Florida through the tourist traps of Central Florida to the tropical, international environs of SOBE, come stories of sun-faded noir, orange pulp served up freshly squeezed by the Sunshine State’s very best practitioners.

Florida Writers Association Think mysteries, thrillers and whodunits. Crime writing is a genre that can capture a reader at page one. Submitting for this year's theme, "it's a crime," writers interpreted the phrase however they liked, colloquially or literally. The results will bring you to laughter, tears, and more than a few aha moments. Florida Writers Association, a preeminent organization for writers, presents over sixty exceptional stories in fifth short story collection. This unique compilation illustrates the talent among FWA writers, many of whom are published authors and poets. "This book is a stunning compilation of the outstanding writing that readers have come to expect from Florida authors Take a ride with the characters as they introduce you to parts of our world that you've never known. Short stories are a special form of the writing art, and the stories here exemplify the best of the genre." -H. Terrell Griffin, award winning author of the national bestselling Matt Royal Mystery series

First in the series starring the sleuthing Palm Beach playboy from the #1 New York Times–bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author. Inveterate playboy Archy McNally gets paid to make discreet inquiries for Palm Beach’s power elite. But keeping their dirty little secrets buried will take some fancy footwork in McNally’s latest case. A block of priceless 1918 US airmail stamps has gone missing from a high-society matron’s wall safe. Lady Cynthia Horowitz, now on her sixth husband, is a nasty piece of work who lives in a mansion that looks like Gone With the Wind’s Tara transplanted to southern Florida. McNally’s search takes him into a thickening maze of sex, lies, scandal, and blackmail. When passion erupts into murder and McNally must dig even deeper to uncover the truth, he unearths a shocking secret that could expose his own family’s skeletons.

During the first several months of U.S. participation in World War II, our East Coast was menaced by German's u-boats. The submarines were sinking an average of a ship-a-day and they had suffered no loses. But at midnight on April 13, 1942, the U.S.S. Roper discovered the U-85 recharging its batteries off the coast of North Carolina. The U-85 was the first U-boat sunk in American waters. The Roper would have been the most celebrated destroyer in the U.S. Navy had it not been for the captain's next order. In Time Will Tell, Ann Davis reveals the truth about the burial of twenty-nine German sailor's in Hampton, Virginia's National Cemetery. Why were they buried at night though with "military honors?"

“For such a sun-stoked place, Miami sure is shady . . . this batch of dirty deep South Florida fiction might just send you packing . . . your own heat.” —SunPost Don’t let the fabulous weather, the beach bodies, and the high-end boutiques fool you. There is a darkness to Miami that can hit just as hard as a hurricane. If by day, the streets are lined with tourists, at night the gangsters, drug dealers, and desperate come out to play. It’s this Miami that has captured the imagination of some of the city’s best writers. Miami Noir includes stories by James W. Hall, Barbara Parker, John Dufresne, Paul Levine, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Tom Corcoran, Christine Kling, George Tucker, Kevin Allen, Anthony Dale Gagliano, David Beaty, Vicki Hendricks, John Bond, Preston Allen, Lynne Barrett, and Jeffrey Wehr. “For different reasons these stories cultivate a little something special, a radiance, a humanity, even a grace, In the midst of the noir gloom, and thereby set themselves apart. Variety, familiarity, mood and tone, and the occasional gem of a story make Miami Noir a collection to savor.” —The Miami Herald “Murder is nothing new in Miami—or any other big city, for that matter. But seldom has it been so entertaining as it is in the 16 short stories included in Miami Noir.” —Palm Beach Daily News “This well-chosen short story collection isn’t just a thoughtful compilation of work by some of South Florida’s best and upcoming writers. Each Miami Noir story also is a window on a different part of Miami-Dade and its melting pot of cultures.” —South Florida Sun-Sentinel