Double Whammy

My First Carl Hiaasen book and definitely not my last. Who'd have thought that Bass Fishing could be so interesting?...and come to think of it, who'd have thought that Bass Fishing could have so much dirt and subterfuge going on behind the scenes. Hiaasen really brings the whole tournament, and reasons for it, alive. All over America thousands of Bass fishermen head out for the water each weekend in search of the ultimate 'Hawg'. Their fishing, their lures, their equipment all add loving, and at times, hilarious, detail to this nice little murder mystery. Set in Florida, this has ex-photographer, and private investigator RJ Decker hired by the extremely unlikeable Dennis Gault to find out how top Bass Fisherman Dickie Lockhart is managing to cheat at tournaments. It turns out the stakes are a lot higher than this. Lockhart is sponsored by the Outdoor Christian Network, and its sleazy owner. There is murder and nepotism afoot and people are turning up mysteriously dead. At the back of all this is the Skink - or Captain, as he insists on being called. He lives the life of a hermit in the back of a Florida town, and enjoys eating Fresh road kill. He is insistent that people who come visit him also enjoy eating fresh road kill. Underneath his eccentric exterior is a resourceful and cunning person who manages to supervise a great ending to this - figuring who did what to whom and why. And in a hilarious finale, getting a black cop and a hispanic cop to join on all-white Florida Bass fishing tournament as brothers - and catch the only fish. I was surprised at just how readable this was. Sometimes it is difficult to get hold of books you just read - that grip your imagination and tickle your funny bone. I found this one of those. I couldn't predict where it was going to go, or how it was going to end. And even up to the last moment there was still an unpredictable twist to it. The plot had good twists and turns through it and a great cast of characters to push it along.

I stumbled across one of those bass fishing shows a few days before I read this book. I couldn't believe people would sit around and watch people fish! But they do. And Hiaasen had a ball writing about it, too.This book has so many great moments. Skink and the poodle is one of the funniest things I've ever read. I laughed so hard, tears streamed down my face. I called a friend and tried to read the scene over the phone, but I couldn't stop laughing. It's all right, my friend knew I was crazy. He rushed out and bought the book, though! The pit bull in the trailer park scene and the aftermath is also priceless. I guess this is Hiaasen's dog book as well as his fish book.Needless to say, if you haven't read Hiaasen, start with this one. You'll be hooked.

This is also my favorite of the Hiaasen books, with Native Tongue and Tourist Season following. Hiaasen has a fabulous sense of chaos and absurdity. My husband and I laugh aloud at the bizarre events and characters that people his world. But there's enough underlying grit to make it all weirdly real, and definitely the underlying humanity to make it moving.

Carl Hiaasen has taken wonderfully wacky characters such as Skink, a mystery giant who wears a glass eye retrieved from a stuffed owl and who dines on road kill, and has turned them into individuals that you have to love. Hiassen's villians, while bad, will capture the reader's imaginations with their total ineptude. This is the first book that I have read by Hiaasen, but the outrageous humor contained in the twists and turns of the plot, centered around a bass fishing tournament, have convinced me to read his other works. Although this was the funniest book I believe I have ever read, Hiaasen, makes his real message, enviornmental destruction, loud and clear and if the reader is not an enviornmentalist before reading the book, there is a good chance s/he will put the book down believing there is work to be done in saving our county, whether it be the swamp lands that Hiaasen weaves into his tale, or perhaps the mountains or lakes in our own back yards!

Carl Hiassen lures you into this tale of bass tournaments, corruption and murder with the skill of a champion angler. There's something to hook you on every page: Convincing protagonists, hilarious supporting characters, local color, and an engrossing story of murder and environmental destruction. To tell much of the tale would be to spoil the book's many surprises and twists. Set against the backdrop of cut-throat professional bass angling, Hiassen tells a tale off a private investigator, in over his head as he visits the murky waters of Deep South lakes and bayous. No one there is quite what they seem, whether that's Skink, a half-mad hermit the size of a bear, or a silver tongued, enormously rich televangelist trying to sell 20,000 condos before the next meeting of the board of directors. Double Whammy is packed with action, humor, plotting and double crosses. As he proved in his novel Striptease, Hiassen has a deft touch with Florida politics, business and crime. In the end, Hiassen slips an environmental message into this enormously pleasurable read, but the moral is a soft-sell, working perfectly with his tale of homicidal rednecks and bass master wanna-bees.