A Visit With Carl Hiaasen

Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Carl Hiaasen and was smitten!  He is a funny and charming man, full of life, and thoroughly engaging – just like all of his books.  The good news is that he’s got a new novel out – Bad Monkey – and it’s just in time for beach reading!  In typical Hiaasen fashion and humor, Bad Monkey looks like it will deliver with all the elements that make Hiaasen so entertaining to read.  There’s an arm in police officer Andrew Yancy’s freezer, and he’s trying to figure out how and why it was separated from its owner.  His investigation leads him on the trail of the new widow of the victim (his ex-lover), and a host of other likely suspects.  Hiaasen is a master at spinning incredible mysteries that are hilarious and dead-on in his interpretation of the corrupt and greedy people in the world.  As usual in all Hiaasen’s books, Florida is the backdrop for Bad Monkey, but this story also ventures into the Bahamas as the tale is told. 

If you like to read mysteries and haven’t read one of his books, put one on your nightstand list!  Hiaasen also writes books for children, all set in Florida and with conservation of nature as a theme.  Notice that his adult books have two words in the titles, and his children’s books have only one word.  He told me that was by design because he didn’t want people to be confused which books were which.  I highly recommend the children’s books as well.  They are smart, engaging, and hilariously funny – just like his adult books.

Other Hiaasen Books You May Enjoy

Star Island (2010) - Meet twenty-two-year-old Cherry Pye (née Cheryl Bunterman), a pop star since she was fourteen--and about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster. Now meet Cherry again: in the person of her "undercover stunt double," Ann DeLusia. Ann portrays Cherry whenever the singer is too "indisposed"--meaning wasted--to go out in public. And it is Ann-mistaken-for-Cherry who is kidnapped from a South Beach hotel by obsessed paparazzo Bang Abbott. (excerpt from Bibliocommons)

Nature Girl (2006) - Honey Santana--impassioned, willful, possibly bipolar, self-proclaimed "queen of lost causes"--has a scheme to help rid the world of irresponsibility, indifference, and dinnertime sales calls. She's taking rude, gullible Relentless, Inc., telemarketer Boyd Shreave and his less-than-enthusiastic mistress, Eugenie--the fifteen-minute-famous girlfriend of a tabloid murderer--into the wilderness of Florida's Ten Thousand Islands for a gentle lesson in civility. (excerpt from Bibliocommons)

Sick Puppy (2005) - Eco-terrorists, evil politicians, a millionaire obsessed with Barbie, and an ex-governor named Skink are just a few of the characters who populate this comic novel of politics as unusual in Florida. (excerpt from Bibliocommons)

And now for his children’s books (adults will love these, too!)

Chomp (2012) - When the difficult star of the reality television show "Expedition Survival" disappears while filming an episode in the Florida Everglades using animals from the wildlife refuge run by Wahoo Crane's family, Wahoo and classmate Tuna Gordon set out to find him while avoiding Tuna's gun-happy father.  (excerpt from Bibliocommons)

Scat (2009) - Nick and his friend Marta decide to investigate when a mysterious fire starts near a Florida wildlife preserve and an unpopular teacher goes missing. (excerpt from Bibliocommons)

Flush (2005) - With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the protected waters around their Florida Keys home.  (excerpt from Bibliocommons)

-KF