Two Faces, Two Faced - The Locations

I've been chatting with a few people who have started reading "Faces" and have asked me if I ever lived in Florida. To anyone else wondering, the answer is no, although I've been there on vacation a number of times. Between that and a fondness for the "Miami Vice" TV show from the 80s, Miami and surrounding areas seemed like the perfect setting for the story of mistaken identity which is "Two Faces, Two Faced."

A lot of the locales in the book are pure fiction, each one made up to suit a particular purpose for the plot. Some of them are real. Just for grins, I thought I'd sort it out.

The Fiction
Metro Centro Convention Center - I needed a place for Tracy to work which presented problems for her to solve as part of her job.

Club Raoul - Let's face it: there's just too few really glamorous places like this (or at least that I know about). I created the type of place I would really like to go.

Golden Years Retirement Village - I suppose I could have found a real place that met the needed requirements, but it's more fun to make it up.

Frankie's Shrimp Boat - I needed a rough sleazy dive sort of place.

Rosen's Deli - Fake, but modeled after Wolfie's which is real.

Green Tea Restaurant - A dark, forbidden rendezvous spot.

Cedrik's and Fernando's - I needed more nice dining spots.

Tugboats and Captain Steve's Diner - More rough-sounding places where criminals might hang out.


The Fact
The Rusty Pelican on Key Biscayne is quite real and represented as closely as I could remember my visits there.

The News Cafe on Ocean Drive is, or at least was once, exactly as described. My husband and I sat there one sunny morning in '94 listening to a man with a metal briefcase discuss movie ideas with a couple of bikers--way cool!

Lummus Park and Beach, including the welcome center, are across from the also-real Art Deco hotel district on Ocean Drive. I remember Ocean Drive as the bustling strip of outdoor bars and restaurants with people cruising up and down the route.

The Mayfair Hotel which is in Coconut Grove. It only gets a mention, but it's a very nice hotel which made an appearance in a "Miami Vice" episode.

I wouldn't be a writer if I didn't like making stuff up, but I also wanted this book to be an homage to a place I truly enjoyed visiting.