Edna Buchanan knew she wanted to be a writer since she was 4 years old. She moved to Florida where she got a job at a small newspaper. Ms. Buchanan became a reporter for the Miami Beach Daily Sun in the late 1960s. In 1970, she was hired as a general assignment and police-beat reporter at the Miami Herald. In 1973, Ms. Buchanan became a police beat reporter, which coincided with the rise of Miami as a center of the international drug trade. Winning a Pulitzer Prize, Ms. Buchanan became one of the best-known crime reporters in the U.S. She discussed some of her assignments in the books, The Corpse Had a Familiar Face (1991) and Never Let Them See You Cry (1993). She has retired from journalism and writes mystery novels. The main character in her crime mystery series is Britt Montero.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information. James W. Hall is an Edgar and Shamus Award-winning author whose books have been translated into a dozen languages. He has written twenty-one novels, four books of poetry, two collections of short stories, and two works of non-fiction. He also won a John D. MacDonald Award for Excellence in Florida Fiction, presented by the JDM Bibliophile. He has a master’s degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University and a doctorate in literature from the University of Utah. He was a professor of literature and creative writing at Florida International University for 40 years where he taught such writers as Vicky Hendricks, Christine Kling, Barbara Parker and Dennis Lehane.

Elmore John Leonard lived in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Memphis before settling in Detroit in 1935. After serving in the navy, he studied English literature at the University of Detroit where he entered a short story competition. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures. Father of Peter Leonard.

Dave Barry is a humor writer. For 25 years he was a syndicated columnist whose work appeared in more than 500 newspapers in the United States and abroad. In 1988 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Many people are still trying to figure out how this happened. Dave has also written many books, virtually none of which contain useful information. Two of his books were used as the basis for the CBS TV sitcom "Dave's World," in which Harry Anderson played a much taller version of Dave. Dave plays lead guitar in a literary rock band called the Rock Bottom Remainders, whose other members include Stephen King, Amy Tan, Ridley Pearson and Mitch Albom. They are not musically skilled, but they are extremely loud. Dave has also made many TV appearances, including one on the David Letterman show where he proved that it is possible to set fire to a pair of men's underpants with a Barbie doll. In his spare time, Dave is a candidate for president of the United States. If elected, his highest priority will be to seek the death penalty for whoever is responsible for making Americans install low-flow toilets. Dave lives in Miami, Florida, with his wife, Michelle, a sportswriter. He has a son, Rob, and a daughter, Sophie, neither of whom thinks he's funny.

TANANARIVE DUE (tah-nah-nah-REEVE doo) is the award-winning author of The Wishing Pool & Other Stories and the upcoming The Reformatory ("A masterpiece"—Library Journal). She and her husband, Steven Barnes, co-wrote the Black Horror graphic novel The Keeper, illustrated by Marco Finnegan. Due and Barnes co-host a podcast, "Lifewriting: Write for Your Life!" A leading voice in Black speculative fiction for more than 20 years, Due has won an American Book Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a British Fantasy Award, and her writing has been included in best-of-the-year anthologies. Her books include Ghost Summer: Stories, My Soul to Keep, and The Good House. She and her late mother, civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due, co-authored Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights. She and her husband live with their son, Jason.

NEW: Jake Lassiter tackles high school football and becomes the most hated man in Miami in EARLY GRAVE, Paul Levine's new legal thriller. "An extraordinary hero stars in a legal tale as believable as it is riveting." - Kirkus Reviews "Levine scores with this complex and witty legal thriller. This winner works even for those new to the series." - Publishers Weekly (★starred review★) When his godson suffers a catastrophic injury in a high school football game, lawyer Jake Lassiter sues to abolish the sport and becomes Public Enemy Number One. The former NFL linebacker also battles CTE, the fatal brain disease caused by repetitive head injuries. His personal life, too, hits a rocky patch. He's in couple's therapy with fiancée Dr. Melissa Gold and vows to live long enough to fix his relationship and achieve justice for his godson. "Grounded in reality, EARLY GRAVE is a novel with heartfelt emotion, flashes of humor, and high-octane excitement." - Franco Harris, NFL Hall of Fame Running Back STILL GOING STRONG: CHEATER’S GAME is a stand-alone entry in the Jake Lassiter series. "Clever, funny and seriously on point when it comes to the inequities of society and the justice system, CHEATER'S GAME is top-notch stuff from Paul Levine. His Jake Lassiter is my kind of lawyer!" - Michael Connelly You may ORDER HERE. ALSO AVAILABLE: BUM DEAL. “Fascinating, fully developed characters and smart, well-paced dialogue keep the pages turning. Levine manipulates the expectations of the reader as skillfully as Jake manipulates the expectations of the jury” — Publishers Weekly (★starred review★) "Drop everything...Read it now...BUM DEAL is fantastic." - Lee Child “BUM DEAL is the real deal. A funny, compelling and canny courtroom thriller, seasoned with a little melancholy and a lot of inside knowledge.” — Scott Turow Defense lawyer Jake Lassiter switches teams and prosecutes a surgeon accused of killing his wife. There’s just one problem…or maybe three: no evidence, no witness, and no body. But Lassiter’s used to fighting impossible battles on the gridiron and in court. After all, he’s not totally burned-out—just a little scorched. BUM DEAL is a stand-alone entry in the Jake Lassiter series and available for ORDER HERE. Available now: BUM LUCK "Thirty seconds after the jury announced its verdict, I decided to kill my client." That's the opening line of BUM LUCK, which brings together Miami's offbeat lawyers Jake Lassiter, Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord. What's behind Lassiter's bizarre behavior. Solomon and Lord think that one-too-many concussions on the football field have left their pal with C.T.E., the fatal brain disease. Is it lights out for Lassiter? “The pages fly by and the laughs keep coming in this irresistible Florida romp. A delicious mix of thriller and comic crime novel.” – Booklist (★starred review★) The author of 23 novels, Paul Levine won the John D. MacDonald fiction award and was nominated for the Edgar, Macavity, International Thriller, and James Thurber awards. More information on Paul Levine’s