You've got to hand it to Hiaasen: He's perfected a formula for crisply written, satirical crime fiction that makes the best use of imaginatively repulsive villains, as well as less thoroughly venal scoundrels and victims who ultimately overcome their antagonists, all while stumping for the preservation of Florida's environment, particularly the Everglades. In Skinny Dip, we find Chaz (who'd rather be golfing than puttering around the "hot, buggy, funky-smelling and treacherous" reaches of nature) falsifying water samples to help Hammernut turn the 'Glades into "God's septic tank." That scheme, though, is endangered not just by Joey's sudden disappearance, but by the suspicions of a python-loving police detective and Chaz's own outstanding inability to tame his Viagra-enhanced tumescence. Even by assigning Chaz a baby-sitter--the hulking, hirsute, and painkiller-addicted Tool--Hammernut can't keep his pet biologist out of trouble. As Joey and Stranahan unfold their revenge plot, and Tool's conscience grows in competition with Chaz's ego, the reader can only marvel at the extent of the train wreck ahead.
As much fun as Hiaasen has delivering Chaz his climactic comeuppance, what's missing from Skinny Dip is a more complex, more credible development of Mick Stranahan's character and the relationship he builds with the much younger Joey Perrone. Like Erin Grant, from Strip Tease, Joey has far more going for her than her bra-cup size; but "hero" Stranahan is of far less interest here than any of his fellow players. --J. Kingston Pierce
]]>Soon Boodle and Stoat's wife, Desie, are fugitives from Florida's nature despoilers (who include the Governor, a "gladhanding maggot," the amusingly slimy Stoat, the human bulldozer Krimmler, the cocaine-importer-turned-developer Clapley, and the hit man Mr. Gash, who's fond of sex with multiple beach bimbos in iguana-skin sex harnesses to the tunes of The World's Most Blood Curdling Emergency Calls). Desie, who has a knack for calamitous romance, is smitten with Twilly, but urges him not to kill any litterbugs or pelican molesters: "Jail would not be good for this relationship." What keeps pure farce at bay in a novel that romps with the abandon of a scent-crazed Labrador is the otherwise charming Twilly's creepy edge of implacable fanaticism. And what redeems the funny/ugly violence from cliché is its colorful bad guys (they're as iridescent as oil slicks), Hiaasen's excellent wit, and the music of his prose. To evoke a drunk asleep on the beach, he adds a pungent detail: "a gleaming stellate dollop of seagull shit decorated his forehead."
Hiaasen is not unflawed. His original eco-terrorist character, ex-Florida governor Clinton "Skink" Tyree, seems like an interloper from the earlier books. But Hiaasen's the master of madcap ensembles (which is partly why the star-vehicle film of his fine book Strip Tease flopped). And even when you can see a chase scene's denouement coming for a beachfront mile, each paragraph packs descriptive delights to keep you going at breakneck pace. --Tim Appelo
]]>Fette Fische ist nach Eulen das zweite Kinderbuch des vielfach ausgezeichneten Journalisten und Bestsellerautors Carl Hiaasen. Wie alle seine Geschichten spielt auch diese in Florida, einer Gegend voller atemberaubender Naturwunder. Doch leider gibt es dort auch skrupellose Umweltzerstörer. Deshalb greifen die Menschen, die sich in Hiaasens Büchern für die bedrohte Tier- und Pflanzenwelt einsetzen, schon mal zu ungewöhnlichen und nicht immer ganz legalen Mitteln. -- Nein, es ist nicht zu übersehen: Carl Hiaasen ist ein Autor mit einer Botschaft. Aber glücklicherweise ist er zugleich einer der witzigsten, unterhaltensten und besten Schriftsteller der Gegenwart. Und so legt man Fette Fische nicht aus der Hand, bis man es zu Ende gelesen hat -- ob man nun 10 oder 100 Jahre alt ist. -- Gabi Neumayer
]]>Die erste Entdeckung bezieht sich auf den Plot von Der Reinfall selbst, der durch seine kluge, der filmischen Screwball-Komödie entlehnten Komposition und einen feinen, aber abgrundtief schwarzen Humor besticht. Die zweite Entdeckung aber ist der Schauspieler und Sprecher Jan Josef Liefers selbst, der grandios zu modulieren und zwischen den unterschiedlichen Stimmungen seiner tragisch-traurigen Helden hin- und herzuschwenken versteht. Der Reinfall ist also alles andere als ein Reinfall. Gut, ja: besser als gut zu hören. -- Stefan Kellerer
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