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Okay, so I'm biased. The picture of Carl Hiaasen above my desk certainly attests to that. I had to take it down after being laughed at by my co-workers.
But I also love his writing. (And I liked his Florida crime books before I saw his picture --- really.)
And his latest, LUCKY YOU, doesn't disappoint this die-hard Hiaasen fan.
A multimillion-dollar lottery drawing results in two winning tickets and three winners. The aptly named JoLayne Lucks holds one ticket (her lucky numbers correspond to her age each time she left a man). Two murderous redneck psychopaths hold the other.
JoLayne's plan: Use her winnings to save her beloved turtles' land from being turned into a strip mall --- a familiar eco-conscious plot for Hiaasen fans.
The psychopaths' plan: Start a home-grown militia --- against anyone who doesn't look like them or like them (which is just about everyone). But Bode Gazzer and Chub are greedy psychopaths. So greedy they beat up JoLayne to steal her winning ticket. They're not going sharing this windfall --- certainly not with a black woman.
Throw in gruff newspaper reporter Tom Krome who's sent to JoLayne's small Florida town to write a human interest story on her (falling in love isn't part of the assignment). His editor dreams of alliterative headlines playing off the "Luck" of her name. Oh, and the editor grows to love JoLayne's turtles --- who have been left in the protective hands of the local religious shill, who pumps tears through a Madonna statue for the pilgrims. Did I happen to mention the Hooters waitress held hostage who bears more than a passing resemblance to Kim Basinger?
Confused? It's exhausting just trying to sum up all of Hiaasen's wacky characters in LUCKY YOU --- or any of his novels. Hiaasen fans always get a little tongue-tied trying to describe all the wild and wooly goings-on in his capers. How do you explain his over-the-top, yet somehow realistic, characters and their predicaments?
I certainly can't do him justice. So, as I tell people all the time --- just read him. You won't be sorry.
Says Donald Westlake: "Carl Hiaasen is so good he ought to be illegal."
I'll say. Now, if I could just get him to call me.
--- Reviewed by Jennifer Levitsky
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