Talk about a highly recommended author! June and Carol have been telling me about Carl Hiaasen’s ironic sense of humor for years, and finally I’ve read this thoroughly outrageous, original, and entertaining author. I picked up Native Tongue at our library’s book sale. I bought another novel by him as well, and I will get to it asap (but my list is sooooooo long already). In the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vt., I noticed that he has edited 2007's The Best American Mystery Stories. I bet they’re pips!
Native Tongue is one heck of a crime novel! Our detective, Joe Winder, is a burned out former cop born and raised in Florida who gets pulled kicking and screaming into trying to solve the mystery of the missing last-of-their-species mango voles from a wildlife park whose owner wants to out-Disney Disney. What happens to him as he meets aged, rich environmentalists, New York crime figures, swamp-inhabiting hermits, several hot women, and two of the most unusual crooks one can imagine kept me wanting to find the time to keep reading.
I admit that at first I thought I was reading a silly, nonsensical tale, but then I got hooked by Hiaasen’s bait just as Joe hooks fish at his favorite, soon to be demolished, spot in Florida. Hiassen is happily a Floridian, and he is apparently against the uncontrolled growth that ruined much of what makes Florida unique, but he is not a lecturer, and while the message is clear, it is also painlessly administered.
Haissen is a masterful story teller, and I was never sure what was coming next—murder, theft, sabotage, or fun. Native Tongue is exactly the kind of book you’d like to take along on a vacation. It’s a great read, not at all taxing. The only thing you have to be careful about is drawing attention to yourself as you laugh out loud!
Native Tongue is one heck of a crime novel! Our detective, Joe Winder, is a burned out former cop born and raised in Florida who gets pulled kicking and screaming into trying to solve the mystery of the missing last-of-their-species mango voles from a wildlife park whose owner wants to out-Disney Disney. What happens to him as he meets aged, rich environmentalists, New York crime figures, swamp-inhabiting hermits, several hot women, and two of the most unusual crooks one can imagine kept me wanting to find the time to keep reading.
I admit that at first I thought I was reading a silly, nonsensical tale, but then I got hooked by Hiaasen’s bait just as Joe hooks fish at his favorite, soon to be demolished, spot in Florida. Hiassen is happily a Floridian, and he is apparently against the uncontrolled growth that ruined much of what makes Florida unique, but he is not a lecturer, and while the message is clear, it is also painlessly administered.
Haissen is a masterful story teller, and I was never sure what was coming next—murder, theft, sabotage, or fun. Native Tongue is exactly the kind of book you’d like to take along on a vacation. It’s a great read, not at all taxing. The only thing you have to be careful about is drawing attention to yourself as you laugh out loud!
Hiaasen "Carl+Hiaasen" "Native+Tongue" books novels "good+reads" travel seniors "Third+Age" "Third+Age+Traveler"
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