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Basics
§ Briefly: Part serious commentary on
environmental issues; part series of dark comedic incidents in Florida. A
bumbling marine scientist hopes to get rich helping ruthless agribusiness
tycoons; his wife finds out what he's up to, so he tries to murder her. She survives
a push into the Atlantic and is now out to get him with the help of a former,
down-on-his-luck cop.
§ Protagonist: Mick Stranahan,
former cop and current loner. He rescues a woman who was thrown off a cruise
boat to die by her husband, Chaz. Chaz was up to no good, helping
agribusiness tycoons in their illegal pollution activities. Mick and Chaz's
"dead" wife will try to put a stop to it all.
§ Setting: Florida
§ Context:
This the 1st of 15 standalone books, all humorous mysteries.
§ % of Amazon readers giving 5-star
ratings: 57%
§ Combined % of Amazon readers giving either
4 OR 5-star ratings: 85%
§
Total
all Amazon ratings this book: 3,260
Long
Form
Chaz
Perrone might be the only marine scientist in the world who doesn’t know
which way the Gulf Stream runs. He might also be the only one who went into
biology just to make a killing, and now he’s found a way–doctoring water
samples so that a ruthless agribusiness tycoon can continue illegally dumping
fertilizer into the endangered Everglades.
When
Chaz suspects that his wife, Joey, has figured out his scam, he pushes her
overboard from a cruise liner into the night-dark Atlantic. Unfortunately for
Chaz, his wife doesn’t die in the fall.
Clinging
blindly to a bale of Jamaican pot, Joey Perrone is plucked from the ocean by
former cop and current loner Mick Stranahan.
Instead of rushing to the police and reporting her husband’s crime, Joey
decides to stay dead and (with Mick’s help) screw with Chaz until he screws
himself.
As Joey haunts and taunts
her homicidal husband, as Chaz’s cold-blooded cohorts in pollution grow
uneasy about his ineptitude and increasingly erratic behavior, as Mick Stranahan discovers that six failed marriages and years
of island solitude haven’t killed the reckless romantic in him, we’re taken
on a hilarious, full-throttle, pure Hiaasen ride through the warped politics
and mayhem of the human environment, and the human heart.
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Hiaasen's signature mix of
hilariously over-the-top villains, lovable innocents, and righteous
indignation at what mankind has done to his beloved Florida wilderness is all
present in riotous abundance.... Hiaasen's books are so enjoyable it's always
a sad moment when they end. –Publishers
Weekly
Another delirious romp
through the swamps of South Florida from the irrepressible Carl Hiaasen.... A
corker, chock-full of belly laughs and blistering truths. –Booklist (starred review)
To me, a lot of the books that win awards for humorous mysteries
remind me of sit coms -- not funny or even just fun. If you like this type of
crime fiction, help me start a list for future consideration. This is the best
I could offer without going back to Evanovich. –Dick
Awards
for this Book
§ Finalist
2005 Dagger Award
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