she saves a child from being struck by a vehicle. e rescue brings media attention, followed by a mysterious photograph and a message suggesting that Ridley may not be who she thinks she is. Her search for answers leads to a decades-old kidnapping, concealed family history and a web of people determined to protect the past. Unger turns one heroic act into a tense investigation of identity and the lies families tell in the name of protection. Randy Wayne White, Sanibel Island Randy Wayne White has long called Sanibel Island home and previously worked as a shing guide along Florida’s Gulf Coast. His knowledge of marine life, island communities and remote waterways gives his Doc Ford novels a strong sense of place. Sanibel Flats introduces Marion “Doc” Ford, a marine biologist with a shadowy history in government intelligence. When an old friend asks for help nding his kidnapped son in Central America, Ford is pulled back into the dangerous life he hoped to abandon. e search involves political violence, ancient artifacts and enemies who know more about Ford than his Florida neighbors do. e novel established him as a capable, reluctant hero equally comfortable in a laboratory, on a ski or confronting men who have severely underestimated him. Stephen King, Seasonal Florida Resident Stephen King and his wife, novelist Tabitha King, spend their winters in Florida and the remainder of the year in Maine. Florida may provide sunshine, although King’s imagination has never shown much interest in leaving readers comfortable. In e Shining , struggling writer Jack Torrance accepts a winter position as caretaker of the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado. He arrives with his wife, Wendy, and their young son, Danny, who possesses a psychic ability known as “the shining.” As snow cuts the family o from the outside world, the hotel’s violent history begins exerting its inuence over Jack. e novel combines supernatural terror with addiction, family tension and a father’s deteriorating mind, creating one of the most recognizable stories in modern horror. Michael Connelly, Part-Time Florida Resident Michael Connelly divides his time between California and Florida and has sold more than 90 million books. Although many of his novels remain rmly rooted in Los Angeles, his years in Florida include an earlier reporting career covering
crime for newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale.
e Lincoln Lawyer introduces Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles defense attorney who conducts much of his business from the back seat of a Lincoln Town Car. Haller believes he has secured a lucrative case when a wealthy real estate agent is accused of attacking a woman. Evidence soon connects the case to one of Haller’s former clients, forcing him to reconsider a past conviction and confront a defendant skilled at manipulating the legal system. e novel became a successful lm and later inspired the popular television series. Florida’s literary residents do not share a single genre or worldview, but they have chosen a state rich in contradictions, where tropical beauty, ambition, history and eccentricity routinely occupy the same ZIP code. eir books travel through royal palaces, Parisian safe houses, haunted hotels and Miami courtrooms, yet their authors return to Florida to write the next chapter. Given the state’s continuing appetite for reinvention and questionable behavior, none of them should run short of ideas.
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