SBD the opposite of the category romance

I read a couple of Florida books this weekend. They're melding together, just like all the category romances I read for The Big Contest** And they're the perfect antidote to sentimentality. Kind of acid to romance's base. My brain is now operating with Neutral Ph.

The formula for these books must include drug dealers, drug users (usally mellow pot-heads), villains that gleefully pollute the wilderness, dour Cuban women, comical retirees and the clusterfuck that ends up with people killed in interesting or humorous ways.

I just read Tricky Business, by Dave Barry. I don't know how I missed that one. I wrote a short review on one of those review sites:

"Lots of riffs by the characters that read just like Barry's old column. I recently discovered that whole Florida Funky Characters and Crime genre, and it makes for some great (though bloody) escapist stuff.

Yeah, Johnny and the Contusions fine name for a rock band."

The other thing I liked about this book? It's dedicated to My Close Personal Friend -- whom I've never met -- Gene Weingarten.**** Also there's a character named Gene Shroder, which is a combo of Gene and his editor, Tom Schroder. I put in two spellings because I don't recall how either last name is spelled and I'm too lazy to look either up.

Anyway.

Is there a name for this genre? South Florida Gory Goofiness?

And can someone tell me if Jimmy Buffet still a cultural force to be reckoned with or am I a few decades out of date? Is it like mentioning Sinatra in Vegas?

I was just thinking that women are not real people in any of those books and getting grouchy about it when I realized that NO ONE (other than the main character, and not always him) is a real person in almost all those books. Oh. Ah.

The writers on my Florida list:
Dave Barry
Lawrence Shames
Tim Dorsey
Edna Buchanan (I like her non-fiction better)
Carl Hiassen (duh)

I'd put the Dexter books on there, but they don't seem to feature Florida as a character as much as the others.
And if Burn Notice was a book? Eh, not really goofy enough. And the main references to Florida seem to be women's butts in bikinis.

Hey, and this brings me to another tangent. How come TV shows don't show a city's character? Monk was in SF? I don't think so. Where the hell are the gay guys? Just in the background for heavens sake.

White Collar in NYC? Not really. Those shows could have been placed anywhere. Just more shots that bring back what the city's really like--not those dumb panoramas of the city's buildings but some of the real characters/types you see there.

I mean, come on, White Collar. Where the fuck is the Naked Cowboy?

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** every notice the coupons a couple of weeks before the Super Bowl? They all talk about "Get Ready for the Big Game "with pictures of footballs. No mention of Super Bowl.

**** Good God, I hope I don't name drop him much longer. I think I have a week or so after yesterday, the official release of Our Column.