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). But first—this being Hiaasen country—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, who with hilarious aplomb earns his place among Carl Hiaasen’s greatest characters.
Here is Hiaasen doing what he does better than anyone else: spinning a tale at once fiercely pointed and wickedly funny in which the greedy, the corrupt, and the degraders of what’s left of pristine Florida—now, of the Bahamas as well—get their comeuppance in mordantly ingenious, diabolically entertaining fashion.
From the Hardcover edition.
His own league Carl Hiaasen is one of my favourites, and once again he doesn’t disappoint. I feel almost at home now in South Florida – this seems to be the only proper place for Hiaasen’s comedy thrillers. Strangely enough by the way: one of the few other ones I liked was set in Germany: .It’s difficult to avoid spoilers here, but some have already been done in the description, like the…
Bad Monkey: Another few karmic days in paradise Most of us have our favorite authors. They have earned that particular place on out bookshelves as they have either enlightened or entertained us over time, and if we’re lucky, a few of them have done both. But as new titles are released, one can only speculate as to whether it will be as good as the author’s previous works. is the latest offering in a long line from author and journalist Carl Hiaasen,…