Black-humored crime-novelist Hiaasen (Tourist Season, 1986; Double Whammy, 1987) tops himself here, exploding sardonic marvels on nearly every page—in an exceptionally inventive tale of a retired Florida cop and his run-ins with the weirdest villains this side of Batman. Former state investigator Mick Stranahan just wants to be left alone to fish and to feed his pet barracuda at his stilt house in Biscayne Bay. But when a Mafia hit-man shows up, Stranahan is forced to skewer him with the nose-sword of his stuffed marlin, and then to leave his hideaway to find out who wants him dead. The culprit: Dr. Rudy Graveline, a rich quack of a plastic surgeon who's trying to cover up his woman-slaughter, during a nose job four years earlier, of a patient—an old case of Stanahan's that's now being dug into, because of a tattling nurse, by Reynaldo Flemm (read Geraldo Rivera) of TV's hardhitting In Your Face. Meanwhile, Graveline sics a new killer on Stranahan: seven-foot-tall Chemo—he of the Rice Krispies complexion, legacy of a botched excision of ingrown nose hairs—who promptly loses his left hand to Stranahan's barracuda, but who ingeniously replaces it with a unique prosthesis, that gardener's delight, a Weed-Whacker. Stalked by Chemo, and now also by two bent cops, Stranahan turns to his shyster brother-in-law for a legal attack on Graveline—with hysterically disastrous results. And then there's the romantic front, as Chemo lumbers into something like love with that chatty nurse, and Stranahan, veteran of five whirlwind marriages, tries not to tall in love with Flemm's TV producer. Meanwhile, Flemm raids Graveline's clinic and dies at the hands of a liposuctioner—but all accounts are squared away when Chemo, assisted by Stranahan, performs a fatal nose job on Graveline. For all the wackiness, Hiaasen never loses control of his rambunctious story or characters, keeping his satire sharply focused and the suspense on full throttle. Great entertainment, Hiaasen's best.
Pub Date: Sept. 11, 1989
ISBN: 0425233499
Page Count: 332
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1989
A romantic suspense that skillfully balances both elements.
A successful businesswoman hires a smooth-talking bounty hunter to find a lead on her sister’s murder.
Kate Gallagher was the only one available to identify her younger sister Chrissy’s body after she was found dead, having run away from home two years earlier. Since Chrissy succumbed to drugs and turned to sex work to survive, her murder isn't taken seriously by the local homicide department. Kate is filled with grief and regret at not having been there for her sister, and she’s determined to find her killer as a kind of penance. Jason Maddox is the charming man Kate almost hooked up with at a local bar. He also happens to be on the payroll of the most successful investigation company in Dallas. He’s all too eager to help Kate out and spend more time getting to know the blonde he danced with at the Sagebrush Saloon. At first, Kate and Jason vow to keep things professional until the case is solved; there’s obvious attraction that they’re willing to pursue at a later date. But the increasing sense of danger mixed with Kate and Jason’s close proximity proves to be too heady of a combination. The tension never lets up as the pair visit seedy bars and interrogate unsavory characters. With a steamy romance and undeniably hot chemistry, the main characters are well matched. They’re both driven, slightly stubborn, and enjoy the adrenaline rush of catching criminals. Martin (The Conspiracy, 2019, etc.) doesn’t skimp on graphic, violent details as Chrissy’s murder leads her couple to something much bigger: human trafficking. Though not for the faint of heart given its weighty material, this is an un-put-down-able page-turner that’s sure to satisfy fans of romance and thrillers alike.
A romantic suspense that skillfully balances both elements.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-335-00769-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dark, quick-moving, suspenseful story stuffed full of psychological quirk and involution.
The latest thriller from Swanson (All the Beautiful Lies, 2018, etc.) is a twisty, fast-paced tale that depicts picket-fence suburbia's seamy, murderous underside.
Hen and her husband, Lloyd, have just left Boston for the tranquil burbs, and things are looking up for her. After a psychotic break sparked by the unsolved murder of a neighbor, Hen is on the mend, her bipolar disorder under control, her optimism resurgent, her career as an illustrator of dark YA books taking off. At a meet and greet she and her husband hit it off, or think they should, with their next-door neighbors Matthew and Mira, the only other childless couple nearby. But when they cross the driveway for a barbecue, the potential for neighborly coziness curdles. Hen notices a little fencing trophy on a shelf in Matthew's office and recognizes it—or wonders if she recognizes it—as one of the mementos the police reported was stolen from the murder scene in the city. When Hen recalls that the man killed was once a student at the prep school where Matthew teaches history, Hen grows suspicious of Matthew—and starts to stalk him. Is this a break in the case or the beginning of another fit of paranoia? And even if it's the former, who will believe Hen's suspicions given her earlier obsession with the case and the hospitalization it led to? Swanson is at his best in exploring the kinship—or what some see as the kinship—between artist and killer, one of the themes of Swanson's great model and forebear, Patricia Highsmith. Swanson isn't quite up to Highsmith's lofty mark, and he succumbs toward the end to a soap opera–like plot-twist-too-far...but for the most part, this novel delivers.
A dark, quick-moving, suspenseful story stuffed full of psychological quirk and involution.Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-283815-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
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