"Riled, righteous and rip-roaringly funny...Hiaasen's novels ought to bear the warning label: may be hazardous to your sides. They may split."
-from New York Newsday
This novel is a sequel of sorts to Bad Monkey which I finished listening to recently on CD. A few characters are the same but many more wacky ones are introduced. Protagonist Andrew Yancy is still trying to win back his detective badge and hang onto his girlfriend former M.E., Rosa. He gets involved in another wild and crazy case. Buck Nance of the "Bayou Brethren" reality show (think "Duck Dynasty") disappears while his agent, Lane Coolman, is the victim of a " bump and grab" car accident followed by his being kidnapped. The driver of the car and kidnapping accomplice is Merry Mansfield, the eponymous "razor girl." (You'll have to read only a few pages to find out why!) While this is going on, Yancy meets his would-be next door neighbor on Big Pine Key, Deb, who has lost her $2000 engagement ring.
Add to all this lunacy a crook who steals sand from one beach to sell to another, a lawyer of questionable integrity, a criminal who electrocutes himself via a Tesla, a Mafia boss, a rabid fan of "Bayou Brethren" who pushes a Muslim off the conch train to his death and some giant Gambian pouched rats! Talk about outlandish predicaments---one after another!
Razor Girl is set in the Florida Keys, much of it in Key West. I have been there a couple of times so I enjoyed the references to Duval Street, the La Concha hotel (where we stayed), Mallory Square, the Southernmost Point, the conch train and the countless chickens that roam everywhere. So not only was the novel good for a bunch of laughs, it brought back memories of a pretty cool place!
I will rate this one a 5 for high entertainment value! Literary value---not so much.
No comments:
Post a Comment