Some deadly things in the Everglades crawl. . . Some slither. . . And some walk on two legs. . .

People who haven't been hurt by life don't become private eyes. Before Annabelle Hardy took over her father's Miami detective agency, she was beautiful, married, and teaching at Yale. She's still beautiful-but now she's deaf, widowed, and learning the lessons of the streets from her hot-tempered and oddly named partner, Dave the Monkeyman. They're not your usual P.I.'s. And their new case is not your usual murder.

A scientist at an Everglades atomic plant has been found dead. His corpse was so dangerously radioactive that no one would agree to bury it. And so important that someone was willing to break into the reactor to steal it. Investigating the murder, Annabelle and Dave are finding all manner of things dark and dangerous: a nuclear scam; a nudie bar called the Alligator Hole; and a man so seductive Annabelle wants to suspect him of terrible crimes . . . so she can avoid the risks of falling in love.

Investigating a murder at the Hemingway Museum in Key West, Miami P.I. Annabelle Hardy and her partner Dave discover that there are almost as many possible suspects on the island as there are tourists. The case ultimately leads the pair--along with cutthroat sea salvagers, unscrupulous land developers, and even the U.S. Navy--on a wild chase for a Madonna statue lost at sea.