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Lucky You

Carl Hiaasen (Goodreads Author)

3.87 · Rating details · 13,766 ratings · 910 reviews

Grange, Florida, is famous for its miracles--the weeping fiberglass Madonna, the Road-Stain Jesus, the stigmata man. And now it has JoLayne Lucks, unlikely winner of the state lottery.

Unfortunately, JoLayne's winning ticket isn't the only one. The other belongs to Bodean Gazzer and his raunchy sidekick, Chub, who believe they're entitled to the whole $28 million jackpot. A ...more

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Published April 9th 2013 by Random House Audio (first published December 12th 1991)

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· 13,766 ratings · 910 reviews

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Feb 01, 2013 Tim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, humor-favorites

This is a great humor and my favorite Carl Hiaasen novel! This is a fabulous story for listening. 10 of 10 stars

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Mar 30, 2008 Collette rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Lovers of humorous mysteries

Shelves: mystery, hiaasen

Rarely have I found an author that has made me laugh out loud so many times in one book. Hiaasen has done that for me in the books of his I have read. I love his wit and dry humor.
This is a great story about two lottery ticket winners in Florida. One is a young black woman that works in a vet's office and loves animals (keeps an aquarium full of 45 baby turtles that she saved) and the other is a redneck, white supremacist that doesn't feel like sharing the $28 mil., especially with a "negro". T ...more

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Oct 11, 2016 aPriL does feral sometimes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: awesomely-silly-but-i-loved-it, mysteries-potboilers-thrillers, humor-hilarious-intentional-or-not

The criminals in 'Lucky You' have the combined intellectual power of a 5-watt battery. Bodean Gazzer and Onus 'Chub' Gillespie are also rapists, white supremacists, and murderers. But even pond scum can get lucky.

Bode discovers he has won half of a Florida $28,000,000 lottery jackpot! The other half of the prize has been won by a black woman, JoLayne Lucks, a veterinarian assistant. Bode feels no way a non-white should be getting that. Bode and Chub enlist the store clerk who sold the lottery t The criminals in 'Lucky You' have the combined intellectual power of a 5-watt battery. Bodean Gazzer and Onus 'Chub' Gillespie are also rapists, white supremacists, and murderers. But even pond scum can get lucky.

Bode discovers he has won half of a Florida $28,000,000 lottery jackpot! The other half of the prize has been won by a black woman, JoLayne Lucks, a veterinarian assistant. Bode feels no way a non-white should be getting that. Bode and Chub enlist the store clerk who sold the lottery ticket to Lucks into joining them in their new anti-immigrant militia. Shiner, the store clerk, is even more dim-witted than the two ex-cons although he doesn't have their vicious bent natures. Bode doesn't have to talk very long before he has convinced them to attack JoLayne and steal her ticket.

Meanwhile, Tom Krome, reporter, is falling for JoLayne. He knocked on her door hoping for an interview, but she refused. Regardless, he thinks she is something special and he likes her. She makes him want more than ever to find his wife! Mary Andrea has been hiding since he told her he wanted a divorce four years ago, which is an amazing feat since she is an off-Broadway actress! Then, JoLayne is brutally attacked and she comes to Tom for help that night. Will Tom use his resources to track down Bode and Chub and get her lottery ticket back? He will.

Then, Tom's brittle boss, Sinclair, Assistant Deputy Managing Editor of Features and Style, fires Tom because he won't give up the lottery news story. Sinclair only likes upbeat stories and JoLayne's story has turned bad. He hates Tom anyway because Tom is the best writer on the newspaper. Then he learns Tom has won a writing award! There is another slight problem - the managing editor loves Tom and if he finds out Sinclair fired Tom, it will be Sinclair who is out in the street. He decides to go to the Grange, where JoLayne lives, to see if he can't talk Tom into coming back. Instead, he runs into JoLayne's neighbors, a couple selling admission tickets to see a Madonna statue who cries bloody tears! They also have a backyard of turtles, and he loves them. He forgets all about Tom and the lottery. As it happens, the turtles are JoLayne's, and she needs the lottery money to buy and save their habitat next door to her house. JoLayne asked the couple to watch and feed the turtles while she is tracking down her stolen ticket, but Sinclair has not a clue of any of this. He simply adores the turtles.

JoLayne and Tom are closing in on Bode, Chub and Shiner because they are using JoLayne's credit cards as they hang out in a Hooter's restaurant everyday. Chub wants to kidnap a waitress working there, so he agrees to help Bode recruit more white supremacists if Bode helps kidnap the waitress.

Someone else is trying to follow Tom as well. Who? Well, it seems Tom had a little fling with a judge's wife, Katie, and now the judge has hired a hit man to kill Tom! The hit man, a law clerk called Champ Powell, is doing his best, but Tom is on the move and hardly ever home. He decides to mess up Tom's house, but the plan goes awry.

Humor is definitely behind every twist and turn in this crazy tale of fortune and love in Florida! The author, Carl Hiaasen, barely has to make anything up, as usual, as the real life people of Florida give him plenty of material to use for his fiction. Lucky us! ...more

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Jan 23, 2009 Danielle The Book Huntress (Winter Frost Queen) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Oddball Humor fans

Shelves: interracial-romance, humor, laughed-myself-silly-while-reading, 2015-challenge-factory-challenge, 2015-cover-to-cover-challenge, library-checkout, set-in-florida, fans-of-irr-group-read, bwwm, small-town-slice-of-life

This was a fun and laugh-out-loud book populated with plenty of 'characters'. I have only been to Florida once, so I can't comment on the veracity of this portrayal of Floridians, but I can't see how someone can make up this kind of weirdness without a grain of truth behind it all.

Under the levity, there is a very serious undercurrent. Two white supremacists who are so busy blaming blacks, Jews, Hispanics, gays, and other undesirables can't look in the mirror and see that they certainly could d This was a fun and laugh-out-loud book populated with plenty of 'characters'. I have only been to Florida once, so I can't comment on the veracity of this portrayal of Floridians, but I can't see how someone can make up this kind of weirdness without a grain of truth behind it all.

Under the levity, there is a very serious undercurrent. Two white supremacists who are so busy blaming blacks, Jews, Hispanics, gays, and other undesirables can't look in the mirror and see that they certainly could do much better at being upstanding citizens themselves. Everyone else is a scapegoat for the disappointments they have with life, and never can they take responsibility for their own lives. While I found their antics funny, there is a part of me that was really dismayed at the intensity of their hatred for people who didn't look like them or live their lives their way. Most importantly, hatred for manufactured reasons that make no sense. As unlikable as Bode and Chubb were, I really liked JoLayne and Tom, although they were no less quirky. JoLayne is an animal-loving vet tech with a history of bad romantic choices that she leverages as a lottery win by playing her age at which she broke up with each one every week. Tom has spent four years trying to divorce his wife who has been evading him because she doesn't want to be a divorcee. Tom gets sent to a small town to investigate the lottery win and ends up volunteering to help JoLayne to get her lottery ticket back.

The romance was well-integrated into the story. It starts out as respect and friendship and a romantic entanglement progresses sensibly. Along with the romance, this was a fun sort of caper, on-the-road read as JoLayne and Tom pursue the fellows who have beaten her up and stolen her lottery ticket, as well as wreaking havoc across the state of Florida.

Hiaasen gives the reader some really strange characters, and along the way, I found myself getting sucked into this story, rooting for JoLayne and Tom, scratching my head over the psychology of such flagrant bigotry as evidenced by Chub and Bode, and enjoying the Florida local color.

I've read another book by Hiaasen, but it was a long time ago. I'm glad that this book reminded me to add him to my roster of authors to pick up in my reading adventures. ...more

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Jan 28, 2015 Mike French rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Once again Carl Hiaasen proves why he is one of my favorite authors! Enjoyable and entertaining from the start to finish! This a stand alone book, so can enjoy without reading Hiaasen before.

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Sep 01, 2017 C-shaw rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is the best Hiaasen book I've read so far! It has all the things that make him so readable, and then some: crazy fanatics of all sorts, mixed with a (very) few "normal" people, murder and mayhem like you wouldn't believe, bad folks getting their comeuppance in spades, plus multiple lottery winners, Florida wildlife, love in strange places. What a great book. ...more

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Jun 21, 2007 Kevin Hobson rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: people looking to sit in a hammock and sip mai tais

I was thinking about Carl Hiassen/Elmore Leonard books, trying to remember which ones I'd read...it's proven challenging. The story descriptions don't help much because, let's face it, the plots are all primarily the same--some sort of mystery set in Florida involving a hard-luck hero and a zany cast of secondary characters, with just enough plot twists to keep you turning the pages. Don't get me wrong, these are great books for what they are--fun summer reading. If you're looking for complex ch ...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Michael rated it liked it · review of another edition

With Carl Hiaasen, I've never had a bad experience, I thought that this was slightly weaker than the other ones I've read, because it swings very unevenly between some truly unpleasntly detailed racism and violence and racous comedy and religious satire, I was personally more engaged by the subplot involving the holy cooters(turtles) and road stain jesus than the main story line which involved two white supremicist thugs stealing a lotto ticket, the main storyline isn't bad or anything, it's jus ...more

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Jul 24, 2018 Julie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is one of the bestest, funniest, funnest, good feelings at the end book I have ever read! Hiaasen at his best :) A pure pleasure book.

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Jul 25, 2010 Jerry B rated it really liked it · review of another edition

True to a friend's billing as “irreverent, but funny”

We always enjoy “discovering” a new author, and when a friend lent us “Lucky You”, with the comment “irreverent, but funny”, we dove into it with pleasurable anticipation. It’s odd when you set out not even knowing a book’s genre, but the novel soon enough revealed itself to be sheer humor, with just enough of a light mystery to create a little suspense along the way. The plot was fairly original – two dumb, petty criminals named Chubb and Bo True to a friend's billing as “irreverent, but funny”

We always enjoy “discovering” a new author, and when a friend lent us “Lucky You”, with the comment “irreverent, but funny”, we dove into it with pleasurable anticipation. It’s odd when you set out not even knowing a book’s genre, but the novel soon enough revealed itself to be sheer humor, with just enough of a light mystery to create a little suspense along the way. The plot was fairly original – two dumb, petty criminals named Chubb and Bode Gazzer, hit the lottery for $14M, only to learn another winner named JoLayne Lucks, a plucky veterinarian’s assistant, also has a winner worth the same amount. They decide to steal her ticket before cashing theirs as a way to amass a fortune to startup their own white supremacist paramilitary. Their fears of a “NATO attack from the Bahamas” gives you an idea of their mental state! When a journalist, Tom Krome, is sent to interview JoLayne, and learns of her fate, he joins with her to dog the criminals and get justice without even notifying the cops. Meanwhile, Tom’s editor, Sinclair, is sent to the Lucks’ home town of Grange, Florida, where he gets involved with some religious fanatics who sell observations of a Madonna statue that occasionally “weeps” (on command), a brake fluid road stain that supposedly looks like Jesus, and a “stigmata” man who has actually drilled holes in himself to display for donations. One soon gets the drift that the light plot is little more than an excuse to parade about all these incredible characters! That the outcome was fairly predictable, including a light romance, is no deterrent, as the entertainment value rarely quits as the pages turn.

We’d say our friend’s mini-review was right on, and would recommend Hiaasen as sort of a male version of Janet Evanovich, but without the serial nature of just one leading character; and also similar to the “Cat Who” series, though, thankfully, not as light and fluffy! Enjoy!
...more

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Mar 24, 2017 David rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Overall, I'd put this as one of my more favored Hiaasen. It's hard to find villains like the ones in here comedic right now, given the way things are currently, though it is satisfying to not see them win. Just makes it a little stressful to read, which is something I bring to the book as opposed to the book itself. As for the book itself though, I do think the ending drug out quite a bit. Everything was really done and it was clear how everything was going to wrap up in a way that could have be ...more

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Dec 21, 2021 Ryannhennis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Absolutely entertaining and witty. My favorite style of humor in writing. The characters were unbelievably real yet outlandish. In my mind this was my favorite movie of the year.

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May 03, 2020 Lisabet Sarai rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Review on my blog this Tuesday... on GR soon!

Definitely recommended to get you out of the COVID dumps!

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May 17, 2013 Sheri rated it did not like it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. So I read Hoot with my kids and thought this was another adolescent fiction book. I figured I'd read it and then suggest it to my 11 year old (if it was an okay read). This is not a kid's book; this is an adult novel and unlike his adolescent fiction (which was good), I found this to be just juvenile adult humor.

First, while I thought the premise of Hoot was good (kids trying to save the owls and the environment); I found the premise here (an adult also trying to save a piece of land from develo So I read Hoot with my kids and thought this was another adolescent fiction book. I figured I'd read it and then suggest it to my 11 year old (if it was an okay read). This is not a kid's book; this is an adult novel and unlike his adolescent fiction (which was good), I found this to be just juvenile adult humor.

First, while I thought the premise of Hoot was good (kids trying to save the owls and the environment); I found the premise here (an adult also trying to save a piece of land from development only this time it is for turtles) to just be repetitive. Doesn't Hiaasen have any other plot ideas? I mean really, we age the characters, throw in a bit more sex and violence, change Pancake house to mob boss, and owls to turtles and the new novel is ready to go.

As if the absurdity of the theft of the lotto ticked by white trash supremists and the introduction of the mafia wasn't enough, Hiaasen felt it was necessary to add in the abduction of the Hooters waitress. However, the whole kidnapping scene was ridiculous. She is driving the car, she knows that all he has is a screwdriver, and both her dad and boyfriend live near Hooters. So, why is it exactly that she doesn't drive to Tony or her parent's house and start honking the horn? Yeah, she might get stabbed by the screwdriver, but she isn't going to get raped or killed. Instead, she willing drives him ALL THE WAY TO THE KEYS???? Total garbage. I get that Amber was necessary to the plot later (and the return of the 2nd lotto ticket), but Hiaasen needed a better way for her to get there.

Another unnecessary (and stupid) plot twist was the whole excursion to the keys. If they want to escape, why not head to Tallahasse first to get the winnings? One of the tickets is rightfully theirs; wouldn't the whole thing have made more sense if they got that money first? I get that they have to wait on Jolaynes ticket and that they shouldn't collect the first batch of dough together, but why are they heading to the Keys instead of to Tallahasse? Oh yeah, because Hiaasen wanted to strand the bad guys on an island and get to rant about vultures later. Again, just garbage.

I think Hiaasen was trying to add some literary value by attemping to engage in a race discussion. However, I found each and every time that he brought it up to be stereotypical and shallow. We have the white trash supremists who are extremely offensive and we have suspicious Jolayne who rags on Tom for never having had a black girlfriend. Tom, on the other hand, is all eager and never once considers that maybe there are some negative social implications to this endeavor. I really just lacked any sort of complexity in the discussion.

I was also floored that both the Judge and Bernard Squires thought he could retire on $250K. I know this written in the 90s. But really, $250K would not allow anyone to retire to the Bahamas in an upper middle class life style since oh, say 1930!

Finally, Moffit was another necessary character (for the plot) but totally unbelievable. Why wouldn't he just have his ATF friends take out the bad guys? If they had the VHS tape and the evidence of injury to both JoLayne and Chub and Bade and they arrested Chub and Bade and found two lotto tickets on them, wouldn't that be enough? Why is it better for him to help them along in ways that could get him in trouble and then conveniently leave so they can muck about and then come back just in time to collect the VHS tape and get rid of Squires? Ugh...just all to convenient and weird and unbelievable.

I know this is stupid, but I was also annoyed at the spelling of cigarettes throughout. He uses "cigaret" (which according to my kindle version of the OED is an acceptable spelling, I grant you) and every time I saw it I wanted to scream.

Really, there was very little redeeming about the book. There were a few cute moments (and opportunistic set-ups), but the entire thing was mostly just rambling unbelievable nonsense. If it was 150 pages (instead of almost 500) it would have been okay. ...more

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Jun 07, 2020 E. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I truly enjoy Hiaasen. He’s written many books, but they’re all different from each other. Similar settings (Florida), but different quirky characters in the oddest of situations.
But as quirky or odd as they may seem, it all rings true.
People are basically weird, and so is life.
Especially in Florida.

Will certainly read another Hiaasen before the summer is over.

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Feb 14, 2019 Mal Warwick rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: trade-fiction

Carl Hiaasen can show you the dark side of life in Florida and make you laugh in the process. In Lucky You, published in 1997, he proves the point again and again. The novel shines a light on religious nuts, redneck scumbags, money-laundering gangsters, and the decline of local journalism as well as Florida's natural wonders. You'll be laughing all the way.

Religious scam artists and the decline of local journalism
Just for starters, here are the principal characters in this cockamamie story:

** Jo Carl Hiaasen can show you the dark side of life in Florida and make you laugh in the process. In Lucky You, published in 1997, he proves the point again and again. The novel shines a light on religious nuts, redneck scumbags, money-laundering gangsters, and the decline of local journalism as well as Florida's natural wonders. You'll be laughing all the way.

Religious scam artists and the decline of local journalism
Just for starters, here are the principal characters in this cockamamie story:

** JoLayne Lucks is a registered nurse who prefers animals to people and has taken a job as a veterinarian's assistant in a small town in northern Florida full of religious scam artists. She is a passionate nature-lover who has rescued 46 turtles called cooters and feeds them lettuce in a large aquarium in her home.
** Tom Krome is a laid-off investigative reporter forced to take a job as a features writer on an undistinguished local newspaper in Florida. The paper is a case study in the decline of local journalism. He's been trying for years to have divorce papers served on his actress wife, who is circling the country in low-rent road shows to avoid the issue. Meanwhile, he is carrying on an affair with the wife of a rabidly jealous local judge.
** Bodean Gazzer, known as Bode, is a racist conspiracy nut whose rap sheet is an arm and a leg long. His companion, Chub, who claims to have only one name, is a glue-sniffing ex-con with a propensity for violence. The two have decided to form a militia called the White Rebel Brotherhood. Bode is the more inventive of the two. He has convinced Chub that foreign NATO troops are massed in the Bahamas preparing an invasion to take over 'Merica on behalf of Negros and Jews.

There is absolutely no reason for these four people to meet. But then JoLayne's Lotto ticket comes up a winner. And so does Bode and Chub's. They're due to share a $28 million jackpot. But the two rednecks can't stand sharing, so they resolve to rob JoLayne's. Take it from there. Carl Hiaasen did. And we're all the richer for it.

Incidentally, Carl Hiaasen may have a ringside seat to the decline of local journalism, but you'll look in vain for any signs in his writing to the decline of American humor. ...more

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Jan 02, 2017 Silvio111 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: currently-re-reading, really-funny-books

In keeping with Hiaasen's custom of putting forward the most outrageous low-lifes as his hapless villains, this book is right up to par.

The only part that gave me pause was his Hooters waitress heroine who, when confronted with an impending rape, maintains her cool in her plucky way; somewhat unrealistic, but I suppose it is either his tribute to courageous potential of women, or else it is his cluelessness in the face of how some women might experience trauma.

Still, I do depend on Hiaasen's boo ...more

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May 22, 2012 Dennis Fischman rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

A $28 million lottery. An African American woman wins half of it and proposes to use her winnings to save a wildlife refuge from developers. Two white would-be militia members (remember militias? They're still out there, while Bin Laden is not!)win half of it and steal her winning ticket so they can use all of it to fund their racist activities...if they can ever stop sniffling glue and posturing. And a reporter whose death has been greatly exaggerated. These are just some of the ingredients in ...more

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Sep 21, 2008 Srimav rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book borders on ridiculous which makes it funny. It has so many inappropriate things happen with his white trash characters that you honestly laugh out loud on occasion.

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Dec 31, 2020 Susan rated it liked it · review of another edition

I grabbed this book because I wanted something lighthearted and easy to read. For the most part, it met that expectation. It’s very inventive and clever, with some memorable scenes like a deranged newspaper editor using his cheesy alliterative headlines to speak in tongues at a tacky religious shrine, a woman in a wedding dress making out with a road stain, or a goon getting his hand gobbled up by a hungry crab.
That said, this book probably hits a bit different in 2020. While it’s supposed to b ...more

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Sep 14, 2021 Gloria Piper rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, fiction, thriller, drama, survival, humor

JoLayne Lucks, a veterinarian assistant, wins half a lotto number, meaning she will get $15 million dollars. At last she expects to realize her dream of saving a tract of woods from being paved over to become a mall. Not that a mall would benefit a town too small to make it practical. The little town of Grange has a renown source of income from hilariously fake religious displays that bring in pilgrims by the busload.

The other half of the lotto prize goes to a couple of white nationalists who wa ...more

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Jun 02, 2021 Annette rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Off-beat and hilarious, this read is entertaining to the end.

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Dec 27, 2011 Doug rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: humor, crime

JoLayne Lucks wins the lottery when the stakes are at 28-million. So do Chub and Bode, a pair of washed white-supremacist wannabes. The fact that JoLayne is black is not why they want to steal from her, but it helps. No, they want to form an Army to fight off the UN's imminent invasion. After taking her ticket, JoLayne gets Tom Krome, a cynical and mostly wasted reporter, to help her track them down. Eventually, a a Hooters waitress, a surly gas-station clerk, Tom's supervisor, a crack ATF agent JoLayne Lucks wins the lottery when the stakes are at 28-million. So do Chub and Bode, a pair of washed white-supremacist wannabes. The fact that JoLayne is black is not why they want to steal from her, but it helps. No, they want to form an Army to fight off the UN's imminent invasion. After taking her ticket, JoLayne gets Tom Krome, a cynical and mostly wasted reporter, to help her track them down. Eventually, a a Hooters waitress, a surly gas-station clerk, Tom's supervisor, a crack ATF agent, a Mafia money launderer, Tom's estranged wife who refuses to give him a divorce, a Judge's wife that Tom had an affair with, the angry and pissed off Judge who know wants to make a lesson of Tom, and a half-dozen people who traffic in road-side miracle shows ALL get involved to lesser or greater degrees.

Most of the humor comes from Bodean and Chub's formation of their army, and from various Florida wild-life incidents. Kind of also true about the danger and thriller aspects. Since the lottery winnings, at this stage, are a pair of tickets, you get a few tense moments realizing that a particular heavy downpour could destroy $28 million dollars. There is enough sustained momentum for the first 2/3s to keep you going. All of last 1/3 is something like a wash-out, very little about it is more than a simple wrapping up with very little pop that exceeds something that had previously happened. One stare down that makes for just about the climax of the book has less impact that a message left scribbled on a wall, and etc. About a hundred pages in, Hiaasen seems to notice he is being verbally polite for a white supremacist and so lampshade hangs the n-word-less Bode and gets to it. That's almost more interesting as a literary technique than the book's plot is as a chase-and-fetch book.

First Hiaasen I have read. Had it for a bit, about five years, along with a small stack of others of his I bought at a discount store. Took me three or four days to read, which seems kind of long considering the length and density, but pulls a fairly large cast and several subplots: except many of the characters are just there, Dave Barry-like, to be humorous asides, and most of the plots look scripted to make visual cutaways if a movie ever showed up. Still, not bad. Really it isn't. Only laughed out loud once. Only quietly chuckled a dozen times. Kept me interested, though, until that final third when the house of cards is set-up but has too long allotted to its fall. Only three-stars because a) several of the "keep you interested" subplots, as said, went nowhere except down weird sideroads and b) I think I would ultimately rather read something by Elmore Leonard [and/or something even darker, like the humorous but dark writings of Joe Lansdale].

Will read another Hiaasen (likely Strip Tease) but if that goes the way of this one, will probably give most of my others away and only keep three or so in my collection. ...more

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Feb 12, 2016 Brian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

"Lucky You" is typical Hiaasen in that the good people win, the bad people lose, and there are satisfying endings all around. I have come to lower my expectations with Hiaasen books, so maybe that is why I have started to enjoy them a little more.
One irritating quality of Hiaasen's is that he always writes stereotypical redneck /southern characters and religious yokels (or charlatans) in his books. It is a device that gets a little tired. But I will give him his due, he does write them well. One ...more

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Nov 02, 2016 Aaron rated it really liked it · review of another edition

LoJayne Lucks is fortunate enough to have an experience we all wish would happen to us. She wins the lottery. The big win was worth a total of $28 million dollars. Since she was one of two winners, she will get an opportunity to take home $14 million dollars, pre-tax. It is just in time as she is hoping to use the money to buy a plot of land to create a nature preserve.

The problem for her is that the other ticket is owned by two men hoping to use their part of the funds to found a white supremac ...more

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Oct 05, 2018 Pamela Mclaren rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: cozy-mysteries, mysteries, comedic

A hilarious, thoroughly entertaining book just this side of slap stick. Carl Hiaasen has a definite clever way of setting up a story that sounds like it could be a thriller and then sets everything on its ear.

In this outing, we meet JoLayne Lucks, a veteran's assistant and plucky young woman who has chosen her weekly lotto numbers based on how old she was when she met the loser men in her life. But this week, the numbers pay off big. Only thing: there are two loopy, gun happy lunatics with a win ...more

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Nov 18, 2009 Jeff Yoak rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-collection, read-in-2009

Lucky You traces the adventures of two Florida rednecks who win the lottery and, upon discovering that they have to split the jackpot with another winner, decide to try to steal the other winning ticket. What follows is a romp involving Hooters chicks, Jesus-shaped oil stains on highways, misadventures with the wildlife of the Florida Keys and shady real estate deals.

I spent a decade living in Florida. I spent most of that time operating businesses such as telemarketing companies and private arm ...more

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Apr 08, 2019 Olga Godim rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries

Not a bad story. This romp across Florida is sometimes scary and sometimes hilariously funny, as a young woman and her boyfriend chase after the villains who stole her winning lottery ticket. My problem with this novel is that most of the page space is dedicated to the villains’ POVs. I guess because he writes satire, Hiaasen feels compelled to explore the villainous minds in depth, but the reader is forced to do it alongside the writer, and the villains in this novel are almost a caricature of ...more

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Dec 23, 2018 Deb rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-books-read

JoLayne Lucks just won $14 million in the Florida lottery and now she can fulfill her dream of purchasing a local tract of unspoiled land to preserve it for wildlife. However a pair of bumbling would be white supremacists have other ideas. When they steal her lottery ticket, JoLayne decides to get it back. She has help from a disgruntled newspaper columnist and a mysterious government agent. Does she succeed? Hiassan shines at creating unforgettable characters and improbable plots that grab and ...more

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Jul 19, 2012 Scott Rhee rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, humor, florida-is-a-f-ed-up-state

Is everybody in Florida nuts? According to Carl Hiaasen, they are. And, oh, how gosh-darn hilarious they are, too. If you've never read a Hiaasen novel, you should consider yourself lucky, only because you have the opportunity to discover and enjoy them. He's one of the few authors that I can re-read and enjoy upon second or even third reading. If Dave Barry and Elmore Leonard had a baby... it would probably be very ugly. Pick up a Hiaasen book (it really doesn't matter which one, but you can st ...more

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About Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen

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Carl Hiaasen was born and raised in Florida. After graduating from the University of Florida, he joined the Miami Herald as a general assignment reporter and went on to work for the newspaper’s weekly magazine and prize-winning investigations team. As a journalist and author, Carl has spent most of his life advocating for the protection of the Florida Everglades. He and his family live in southern ...more

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“It was inevitable that the poacher and the counterfeiter would bond, sharing as they did a blanket contempt for government, taxes, homosexuals, immigrants, minorities, gun laws, assertive women and honest work.” — 0 likes

“Bodean James Gazzer had spent thirty-one years perfecting the art of assigning blame. His personal credo - everything bad that happens is someone else's fault - could, with imagination, be stretched to fit any circumstance. Bode stretched it. The intestinal unrest that occasionally afflicted him surely was the result of drinking milk taken from secretly radiated cows. The roaches in his apartment were planted by his filthy immigrant next-door neighbors. His dire financial plight was caused by runaway bank computers and conniving Wall Street Zionists; his bad luck in the South Florida job market, prejudice against English-speaking applicants. Even the lousy weather had a culprit: air pollution from Canada, diluting the ozone and derailing the jet stream” — 0 likes

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