Books: Bad Monkey By Carl Hiaasen (2013)

“Andrew Yancy-late of the Miami Police and soon-to-be-late of the Monroe County sheriff's office-has a human arm in his freezer. There's a logical (Hiaasenian) explanation for that, but not for how and why it parted from its shadowy owner. Yancy thinks the boating-accident/shark-luncheon explanation is full of holes, and if he can prove murder, the sheriff might rescue him from his grisly Health Inspector gig (it's not called the roach patrol for nothing). Yancy must negotiate an obstacle course of wildly unpredictable events with a crew of even more wildly unpredictable characters, including his just-ex lover, a hot-blooded fugitive from Kansas; the twitchy widow of the frozen arm; two avariciously optimistic real-estate speculators; the Bahamian voodoo witch known as the Dragon Queen, whose suitors are blinded unto death by her peculiar charms; Yancy's new true love, a kinky coroner; and the eponymous bad monkey.”

I found Bad Monkey to be wildly entertaining. Hiaasen’s prose is rich, his humor raw, mean, and a hoot. His weirdly wonderful characters are outlandish and his take on the State of Florida, where events seem improbable, but appear mostly true. Hiaasen’t trademark environmentalist aspect is here as well, with two men trying to destroy a lot of natural landscapes –one in Florida and one in the Bahamas- with overpriced mansions for the super rich. There’s also a bit of a raunchy side here which often reminded me of Christopher Moore, but it’s Hiaasen’s skewering of Florida and its people that makes this book a righteous romp. We’ve seen for years on the internet stories coming out of the Sunshine state and said, “only in Florida.” Apparently, most of what he writes does happen.