For more than half a century a handful of Florida mystery novelists have raised within their works a clear and consistent environmental voice that tells the continuing saga of a once pristine land nearly loved to death. For them, the Sunshine State itself is just as much the victim as the corpse floating in the bay or a tourist fed to the alligators. In a very real sense, all of their villains are Bad Guys on Bulldozers. The first of these Florida-based authors to have his hard-boiled hero voice concerns about the natural environment was John D. MacDonald, one of this country's most prolific...