Las Noches de Diciembre (Spanish, "The Nights of December") is a small terrorist cell led by rogue newspaper columnist Skip Wiley, calling himself El Fuego.

Sparky's body is found stuffed into an oversized suitcase, dressed in a garish tourist outfit, smeared with sunscreen and with his legs amputated.

Brian Keyes, a private investigator and former reporter for the Miami Sun, is hired to help defend petty burglar Ernesto Cabal, who was caught driving Sparky's stolen car.

Since it is the start of tourist season, the police's initial reaction to Brian's warnings is to engage in a cover-up, dismissing the Las Noches communiques as a hoax.

Based on Skip's hints, Brian, Cab and Al deduce that the terrorists plan to kidnap Miami's much-touted Orange Bowl Queen.

Since civic leaders refuse to cancel the Orange Bowl Parade or to provide the beauty queen with visible police protection, Al suggests hiring Brian as her undercover bodyguard.

While escorting Kara Lynn home from a tennis game, Brian catches Jesús loitering in the parking lot and beats him into submission with a racket.

The following evening, during the Orange Bowl, he belatedly realizes that Kara Lynn is supposed to make a brief appearance during the game's halftime show and figures out that Las Noches has chosen that moment to strike.

Kara Lynn is kidnapped and carried out of the stadium on an airboat, though one of the terrorists, ex-football player "Viceroy" Wilson, is shot to death by her unofficial escort.

Brian deduces from Skip's old press clippings that he has taken Kara Lynn to Osprey Island, a small nature preserve in the middle of Biscayne Bay.

As they speed away from the island, Keyes, Kara Lynn and Jenna look back and see Skip is climbing a tree, trying to scare a bald eagle nesting there into taking flight before the dynamite explodes.

Hiaasen's novels typically deal with distinctly Floridian themes such as environmental destruction of unique ecosystems, the inability to sustain rapid growth, and crooked politicians, among others.