In this lighthearted romp through the Florida Everglades, author Carl Hiaasen creates an intricate and inventive plot replete with flying bears, errant skydivers, bed-ridden pythons, endangered wetlands, and imperiled Pomeranians.
We meet a murderous and supremely moronic “scientist”; his multimillionaire, champion swimmer wife; one bad guy who finds redemption, except for that one murder; another bad guy who is killed by a highway memorial cross; the buff middle-aged former cop who has retired to his own island and ends up getting the girl (an author can fantasize); a current cop who channels his inner Columbo; and an Australian sheep farmer who runs away with the hairdresser who apparently is smarter than she was first written.
Hiaasen is a former investigative journalist who might have faced so much governmental corruption and environmental havoc he needed to take a break from serious into silly. He obviously had fun here—the book can be laugh-out-loud funny and outrageously witty. Plus, it has its educational moments about how the Everglades have been destroyed and how money for their revival has been squandered by shady local bureaucrats. It’s a beach read, and perhaps those of us who weren’t total fans of the book were just lacking a beach.
— Pat Prijatel
Books, Brews & Banter 