Skinny Dip by
Carl Hiaasen
hbk out October 04
Published by Bantam
at £12.99
When Joey Perrone gets shoved off a cruise ship by her husband Chaz she actually
survives the fall, and the hours in the ocean. Joey is rescued by reclusive, ex-cop
Mick Stranahan and the pair concoct a plan to make Chaz suffer. It's a sweet premise
for a revenge thriller and Hiaasen has a high old time of it. Chaz is a truly loathsome
creation: dripping ego, avaricious and led by a rapacious sexual appetite. He's also
party to a scheme to cover up horrendous destruction of Florida's Everglades.
Hiaasen is an expert at the comic crime novel: his writing is fiercely satirical, lewd
and witty. His characters are way larger than life. There's a romantic strand in this
outing too, and the hope of change and redemption for some people. A gleeful quality
to the story makes it wonderfully entertaining as Hiaasen pokes fun at everything in
sight and champions efforts to save the wilderness along the way.
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries and the series creator of TV Blue Murder)
