Thorne (just "Thorne"), another unconventional Florida series detective makes his 14th appearance in James W. Hall's riveting, history-laden "Magic City" (St. Martin's, $24.95, 308 pages). Everything that happens harks back to the same steamy 1964 night in Miami when Cassius Clay fought Sonny Liston for the heavyweight title and, nearby, most of an anti-Castro Cuban exile family was massacred in their home.

Thorne, a fly-tying, tarpon-fishing, high-functioning beach bum reluctantly leaves his Key Largo house and moves temporarily to Miami to help his police photographer girlfriend figure out, at great physical peril to themselves and others, why someone is killing people now to lay hands on a grainy 40-year-old photo of the crowd at the Clay-Liston fight.

A pair of crazy, vicious, yet somehow sympathetic Cuban-exile brothers with very personal ties to the events of that 1964 night ultimately push the usually unflappable Thorne into vengeful response that gets the attention of (are you ready?) both the CIA and the White House. Let's just say, figuratively speaking, the Bay of Pigs is still a bit choppy.