Tourist Season


by Carl Hiassen

I scampered onto Hiassen because of a reference on the back of the book Pest Control. I was looking for "Double Whammy" but it was out at yonder publick library and so's I got this one. The story is of a deranged prize-winning journalist in Florida (Dave Barry?) who joins with a reject from a hispanic liberation army (who likes to make bombs), a millionaire American Indian (with a pet human-consuming crocodile), and an ex-football player in order to stop the wave of progress and the influx of people into Florida. The goal is to return Florida to the natural swampland it once was. They plan to do this by killing a few tourists gruesomely and letting the publicity scare off the rest of the population. However, the newspapers don't take them seriously and one blunder after another (blowing up a dog at a dog race instead of the bleachers is just one example) seeks to ruin their attempts. Hot on their trail is a recurring Hiassen character, a hispanic police detective whose name I can't remember. A good book. Not a great book, but still good. Three chunks!


Striptease


by Carl Hiassen

As I liked "Tourist Season", I wanted to read another Hiassen book and, since "Double Whammy" was still out, picked this one. Turns out that this is the book that the '96 Demi Moore movie (of the same name) was based on. In short, a mother looses her daughter in a divorce due to crooked politicians (seemingly a Hiassen theme) and in order to pay the lawyer bills to get her daughter back from her slimy, wheelchair stealing husband, starts working as a stripper, although a stripper who can dance well and not just grind around. There is very little in the way of sex and nudity in this book. Nothing gratuitous. No steamy, sultry passages. Throw in a drunken, sex-addicted Congressman, some rich sugar-farmers, hired goons, a philosophic stripclub bouncer and a whole lot else, and you've got yourself a book. I am hesitantly giving this only two gristles, but it's been a couple of months since I read it. I recall it being humorous, entertaining and well written, so perhaps three gristles are in order, but still, my gut reaction is that it was good but not as good as "Tourist Season".