|
TRAP LINE is the second of the Hiaasen treasures.
Key West is a smuggler's paradise with its dozens of islands and inland waterways, peopled with fishermen, renegades and wharf rats known as Conchs. The innate mistrust of and disregard for the law by the scrofulous inhabitants of The Rock, as Key West is called by the locals, makes them perfect perpetrators to aid and abet Colombian and Cuban drug smugglers.
Breeze Allbury is a respected crawfish boat captain who is not above occasionally carrying something other than lobsters in his hold. Especially if it will help him pay off his boat and build a nest egg to send his promising young son to college. With enough set by, he hopes to retire and leave The Rock and head north. His seagoing skills are noticed by "The Machine," a Miami based cartel looking for skillful pilots to carry human cargo through the treacherous coral reefs and changing tides. Allbury isn't that desperate for money and refuses their offer, which proves costly. When first his lobster trap line is destroyed, then his family is threatened, Breeze Allbury, on the brink of financial disaster, becomes a hellfire vigilante, taking on the bosses who run The Machine.
With fast action, likeable characters, and a plot that twists and turns like a speedboat through a mangrove swamp, TRAP LINE is a mystery that does not disappoint. Again, we see a glimpse of Hiaasen's future genius for complex plots and diabolical denouement. The scofflaw, scruffy Conchs of the Florida Keys are ripe for Hiaasen's cultivation of offbeat characters. While there are no Chemos or Skinks among them in TRAP LINE, his eye for the quirks in human nature is already evident. There is much grist for the mill of his future books here.
--- Reviewed by Roz Shea
 Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.
© Copyright 1996-2009, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
Back to top.
|
