Les Standiford

Les Standiford is an American crime novelist best known for a series of thrillers featuring Miami contractor-turned-troubleshooter John Deal, beginning with Done Deal (1993). He also directed the creative writing program at Florida International University for many years and has written narrative nonfiction on Florida and American history. In this catalogue he appears only as one of thirteen contributors to Naked Came the Manatee (1996), a round-robin novel serialized in the Miami Herald's Tropic magazine, with each chapter written by a different South Florida crime writer, including Edna Buchanan, Carl Hiaasen, and Dave Barry -- a novelty project reflecting the tight-knit Miami crime-writing scene of the era rather than his John Deal series or other solo work, which sits outside this catalogue's scope.