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.

The late Steve Glassman was a professor of humanities at Embry-Riddle University in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Edited by Steve Glassman
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 250
Bibliographic Info: bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2008
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3083-3
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8068-5
Imprint: McFarland

Preface      1

Nancy Bartholomew, Panhandle Mystery Writer      7
James O. Born, Crime Novelist and Career Cop      16
Nancy J. Cohen, Writer of Soft-Boiled Mysteries      24
Tom Corcoran, Key West Crime Writer      32
Tim Dorsey, Satirical Crime Writer Extraordinaire      40
Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Award-Winning Hispanic
Mystery Novelist      50
James W. Hall, Maverick Master of the Keys and South Florida      58
Vicki Hendricks, South Florida Noir Specialist      64
Stuart Kaminsky, Midwestern-Florida Crime Master      74
Jonathon King, Edgar-Winning Mystery Novelist      88
Christine Kling, Writer of South Florida Nautical Crime      102
Paul Levine, Attorney, Novelist, and Television Mystery Writer      113
Michael Lister, Prison Chaplain and Novelist      119
John Lutz, Sometime Florida Crime Writer      128
Bob Morris, Central Florida Journalist and Mystery Novelist      137
Barbara Parker, Mistress of Crime Writing      150
Nancy Pickard, Socially Conscious Crime Writer      61
Aileen Schumacher, Author of Historical Crime Fiction      170
Les Standiford, Florida Crime Novelist and Nonfiction Writer      181
James Swain, Magical Mystery Writer      192
Elaine Viets, Classy Crime Writer      195
M. Diane Vogt, Author of Florida Legal Mysteries      203
Randy Wayne White, Naturalist and Crime Writer      212
Dirk Wyle, Author of Scientific Crime Novels      222

About the Contributors      235
Index      239

• “This collection will both enlighten old readers and attract potential new readers of its subjects”—Mystery Scene