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If You Like Carl Hiaasen BooklistFast paced fiction with an edge, a vivid local setting, crime fiction elements and tinged with black humor. Some Florida related nonfiction titles are included.

 

 

Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.

Fiction

  • Big Trouble
    Author: Barry, Dave
    Publisher: Putnam List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399145672 Date: 1999
    starPWstarKirkusstarLibrary Journal
    The humorous Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist makes his fiction debut with a ferociously funny novel about love and mayhem in south Florida, and the the life-changing events that rumble through a odd-ball family after two hit men pull up to their door.
    Suggested Reading: All Stars | Humor
  • Walking Money
    Author: Born, James O.
    Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399151699 Date: 2004
    starBooklist
    Filled with a rich array of characters, a constantly twisting plot, and an astonishing authenticity, this novel is indeed proof that "Jim Born is the real thing" (Elmore Leonard).
    Suggested Reading: Debuts
    Updated 5.7.04
  • Smokeout
    Author: Date, V.S.
    Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399146490 Date: 2000
    starKirkus
    A tobacco bill has been introduced into the Florida legislature, on its passage rests the livelihoods - and in some cases - the lives - of many of the state's finest denizens. Soon, ruthless executives, venal politicians, sexy lobbyists - and a few honest citizens - reach critical mass in this novel filled with razor-sharp characterizations and pinpoint observations. - Publisher marketing.
    Suggested Reading: Politcal Fiction
    Updated 10/6/00
  • Deep Water
    Author: Date, S.V.
    Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399148159 Date: 2001
    starKirkus
    Before he passed away, Waldo Whipple hoped his Florida theme park, called WhippleWorld, would be home to a suburban Utopia on park grounds. But the make-believe town of Serenity must face real problems. When a reporter begins to dig up the dirt on America's Hometown, he quickly discovers Waldo's successors have a decidedly different vision for the town's future.
    Updated 8/23/01
  • Black Sunshine
    Author: Date, S.V.
    Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399149465 Date: 2002
    starBooklist
    Readers have flocked to Date's darkly comic stories: novels that are "biting and irreverent" (Orlando Sentinel). Date's latest is packed with razor-sharp wit and a raft of delightfully subversive characters and is satire of the highest order.
    Suggested Reading: Political Fiction
    Updated 9.9.02
  • Hammerhead Ranch Motel
    Author: Dorsey, Tim
    Publisher: Morrow $ 24 ISBN: 068817837 Date: 2000
    starPW
    Fanatical Florida folklorist Serge A. Stormes, the star wacko in the cast of crazies from Florida Roadkill, is back in a new novel featuring a dancing TV weather dog, two sex- and drug-crazed co-eds on the lam, and a shotgun-totin' grandma, among others, in a final showdown during a killer hurricane.
    Suggested Reading: Florida Fiction
    Updated 7/26/00
  • Rattled
    Author: Galant, Debra
    Publisher: St Martins $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312349319 Date: 2006
    starLJ
    Carl Hiassen meets Desperate Housewives in this hilarious debut about a face-off between the new suburban chic, some old-time residents, a real estate mogul--and a rattlesnake.
    Suggested Reading: Debuts
    Updated 11.22.05
  • Lucky You
    Author: Hiaasen, Carl
    Publisher: Knopf List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0679454446 Date: 1997
    starPWstarKirkusstarLJ
    NYTBR Notable
    The newest- and funniest- novel yet by the bestselling author of Strip Tease and Stormy Weather. When JoLayne Lucks, the most recent winner of the Florida state lottery, has her ticket stolen by two would be "domestic terrorists", she enlists the help of Tom Krome- a journalist stretched thin by divorce, lite news, and a fool of a managing editor- in a chase that leads them to a deliriously righteous outcome - the inspired hallmark of Carl Hiaasen.
    Suggested Reading: All Stars
  • Sick Puppy
    Author: Hiaasen, Carl
    Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 0679454454 Date: 2000
    starPWstarLJ
    Litterbugs, eco-terrorists, easy politicians, greedy folk, righteous folk, a kidnapped (but cheerfully oblivious) Labrador retriever, and thousands of squashed toads - that's only a partial accounting of the characters who inhabit this unbridled and outrageously funny novel that is Hiaasen at his riotous and muckraking best!
    Suggested Reading: Florida Fiction
  • Skinny Dip
    Author: Hiaasen, Carl
    Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375411089 Date: 2004
    starBooklist
    A shady marine scientist suspects that his wife knows that he has been doctoring water samples so that a ruthless tycoon can continue polluting the Everglades, so he pushes her overboard from a cruise liner. But she's saved by former cop Mick Stranahan--and that's when the real adventure begins.
    Suggested Reading: Florida Fiction
    Updated 5.7.04
  • Aloha, Mr. Lucky
    Author: Hirschfeld, Corson
    Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312870027 Date: 2000
    starBookliststarLibrary Journal
    When a woman answering his personal ad turns up dead on a beach, a Hawaiian journalist is pulled into a conspiracy involving an ex-military sadist, an oddly titillating rock formation, two dim-witted Appalachian twins, and a financier with dreams of turning an earthly paradise into the ultimate golf resort.
    Updated 3/13/00.
  • Too High
    Author: Hirschfeld, Corson
    Publisher: Forge $ 25.95 ISBN: 0765300117 Date: 2001
    starKirkus
    From the bestselling author of Aloha, Mr. Lucky comes the story of Hawaiian archeologist Digger Fitz, who arrives in Golden Leaf, Kentucky, for a reunion with his niece. But he has barely unpacked his bags when he becomes the prime suspect in a cousin's gruesome murder.
    Updated 8/14/01
  • The Ethical Assassin
    Author: Liss, David
    Publisher: Ballantine $ 24.95 ISBN: 140006421x Date: 2006
    starKirkus
    Edgar Award-winning author Liss's first contemporary thriller offers an original view of odd dreamers, political intrigue, and the strange, corrupt ways of life in America.
    Suggested Reading: Thrillers
    Updated 10.25.05
  • Mourning Wood
    Author: Paisner, Daniel
    Publisher: Bonus $ 21.95 ISBN: 1566252091 Date: 2004
    starBooklist
    Best-selling author Daniel Paisner makes an indelible impression with a moving and funny novel reminiscent of Carl Hiassen and Peter Lefcourt. From its dramatic and humorous opening to its touching conclusion, Mourning Wood hooks readers with its eccentric characters and offbeat sense of humor. -Publisher Marketing.
    Updated 2.23.04
  • Virgin Heat
    Author: Shames, Laurence
    Publisher: Hyperion List Price: $21.95 ISBN:2786862033 Date: 1997
    starBookliststarKirkus
    Shames's newest thriller is his wildest to date, rich in excitement, tension, laughs, and loopy characters. Fed up with the life set up for him by the Federal Witness Protection Program, Sal Martucci is tending bar in Key West when he is spotted in a home video by his ex-sweetheart, Angie Amaro - the daughter of the man who wantes Sal dead.
    Suggested Reading: Mobbed Up

Nonfiction