From Elmore Leonard's professional hoods to Carl Hiaasen's amateur grotesques, Florida's mystery writers have created a criminal universe that centers on Miami. For the first time, a group of literary critics examines how the center of crime shifted from the City of Angels to the home of Miami Vice and the Magic Kingdom and why the country's southernmost state has developed such a concentration of talented mystery writers.

In addition to essays on the origins of the detective novel in Florida and its contemporary masters, the book includes a chapter on Florida film noir from Key Largo to Body Heat and the first comprehensive bibliography of mysteries set in the state.