In the land of swaying palms and preying punks, trying to catch a kingpin could mean catching hell...

Dealing with criminals his way led Tony Harwood to a parting of the ways with Miami cops. Now he's trying to make it as a private eye in the funky Florida Keys - and gaining a reputation for getting results...his way.

Ramon Marquesa has a reputation, too. As the scion of South Florida's most powerful family, and the untouchable brother of a political strongman, he's got a stranglehold on Key West that can't be broken. But now he's frantic to hide the only witness who can prove his guilt in a cold-blooded drive-by shooting. Prosecuting for the State Attorney's office, Kay Fulton needs the Marquesa conviction to keep her from abandoning her own convictions about the law, life, and love. That's why she turns to Tony Harwood. But finding the key witness in Key West will mean penetrating the sun, surf, and sub-machine gun subculture of the island's Cubano community - where everyone, cops included, mambos to Ramon Marquesa's tune. That means Tony Harwood will have to play hardball...or die hard.