ABC sets a “Florida gothic” crime show

ABC will add a burst of Florida-quirkiness to its Tuesday line-up.
“RJ Decker” (shown here with Scott Speedman) — based on a Carl Hiasson novel — debuts at 10 p.m. March 3. It will follow “Will Trent” and “High Potential,” nudging “The Rookie” to Mondays behind “American Idol.:
The “Florida gothic” genre — mixing sunny settings, weird characters and the occasional alligator — has surged with the novels of Elmore Leonard, Dave Barry and more, including Hiasson.
Like Barry, he wrote for the Miami Herald, while also doing fiction. He’s written 17 novels (including ones adapted into Vince Vaughn’s “Bad Monkey” mini-series and Demi Moore’s “Striptease” movie), plus seven young-adult books (including one that became the “Hoot” movie).
Now his “Double Whammy” is being turned into a series. Speedman (“Felicity” and “Grey’s Anatomy”) stars as a disgraced newspaper photographer, trying to rebuild his life as a private detective.
Helping out at times is his former mate, a journalist played by former “Station 19” star Jaina Lee Ortiz, and her wife, a police detective (Bevin Bru). Adelaide Clemens (“Rectify”) plays a shadowy informant who may or may not be nudging him back toward prison.