Helpful Score: 5
This was a funny book - with "dark" humor. Joey figured out that she had married a jerk when her husband threw her off a cruise ship. What Chaz Perrone didn't figure on was that his beautiful wife was also a championship swimmer. Joey manages to save herself from drowning - and is rescued by an ex-cop named Mick Stranaham. With Mick's assistance, Joey comes up with a plan for revenge on her husband. Carl Hiaasen always writes up wacky characters and this book is no exception ... a great, funny beach read!
Helpful Score: 3
If you know Hiaasen then this is one you don't want to miss. If you don't know him he has a slightly twisted sense of humor where the good guy always wins. He can go to the dark side of humor in humans but we all know they are out there. Always funny stuff.
Helpful Score: 3
Great book! This is the first book I have read by this author and I definitely will read another one of his books. It is great for the beach and a very fast read.
Helpful Score: 2
I couldn't put this book down!
Helpful Score: 2
Terrific....a whopping cannonball splash of fun...lots of laughs and plenty of vicarious vengence.
Helpful Score: 2
great fun - wild imagination - good characters
Helpful Score: 2
I enjoyed this book. had a great conclusion.
Helpful Score: 2
A screwball delight full of bright, deft, beautifully honed humar...pure reading pleasure.
Helpful Score: 2
Absolutely hilarious book about a man who thinks he killed his wife, but she is alive and well and making his life very difficult to live.
Helpful Score: 2
A stinging and ridiculously funny tour de farce. Full of bright, deftly honed humor. a madcap trip through southern Florida to find out why Chaz Perrone threw his beautiful wife Joey off a cruise liner. To the rescue of a nearly drowned Joey, comes Mick Stranahan trying to live his life in seclusion, but the interruption is hillarious.
Helpful Score: 2
Humorous book with plots and twists that keeps you going. This was my 1st Hiaasen book. I will definitely look for more of his books. A nice change from the typical murder mystery novel.
Helpful Score: 2
This would be a great beach read. It's quick, fun, and funny. I actually hadn't read any of Hiaasen's work before, but I'd grab another one for a light vacation read.
Helpful Score: 2
A very light 'Thriller'. Humorous. Easy read.
Helpful Score: 1
Funny and well done - a good read for new and old fans of Hiaasen.
Helpful Score: 1
Funny; good.
Helpful Score: 1
Good story about revenge against a murdering husband.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a truly screwball book set in South Florida. The story is good and the characters are perfect! A GREAT read!!
Helpful Score: 1
I enjoyed this book very much. I will read more by this author.
Helpful Score: 1
such a great read. It would make an awesome movie! I can't say enough good things about this one.
Helpful Score: 1
I enjoyed this book. It started out great-- interesting and intriguing. I was disappointed by the book's ending and Hiaasen's need to include a love story in a novel that didn't need one.
Not many books can make me laugh out loud, but this one did many times. I'm not sure where Hiaasen comes up with ideas for his books, but he knows how to write.
This book was very funny. It is a very quick paced, easy read with characters that are unique. Our whole family read this book and completely enjoyed it.
Excellent read. I'm addicted to Carl Hiaasen. I am reading back to back Hiaasen books. The developement of character and plot more than holds my attention. Can't read them fast enough.
funny book about how not to try and kill your mate.
Didn't care much for this book.
4 1/2 Stars
Hilarious plot full of offbeat characters with enough twists and Uturns to keep any reader turning pages. You easily visualize many scenes as it seems perfectly designed for a movie.
Hilarious plot full of offbeat characters with enough twists and Uturns to keep any reader turning pages. You easily visualize many scenes as it seems perfectly designed for a movie.
I fully enjoyed this book. There are great characters - bad guys, good guys, good bad guys - all entertaining and they all keep you guessing. Great descriptions of Florida and the variety of people who lurk there.
From the book:
Marine biologist Chaz Perrone can't tell a sea horse from a sawhorse. And when he throws his beautful wife, Joey, off a cruise liner, he really should know better. An expert swmmer, Joey makes her way to a floating bale of Jamaican pot - and then to an island inhabited by an ex-cop named Mick Stranahan, whose ex-wives include five waitresses and a TV producer. Now Joey wants to get revenge on Chaz and Mick's happy to help her. But in swampy South Florida, separating lies from truths and stupidity from brilliance isn't easy. Especially when you're after a guy like Chaz-who's bad at murder, great at fraud, and just terrible at getting caught.
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This was a very entertaining read. It will keep you laughing all the way thru.
Marine biologist Chaz Perrone can't tell a sea horse from a sawhorse. And when he throws his beautful wife, Joey, off a cruise liner, he really should know better. An expert swmmer, Joey makes her way to a floating bale of Jamaican pot - and then to an island inhabited by an ex-cop named Mick Stranahan, whose ex-wives include five waitresses and a TV producer. Now Joey wants to get revenge on Chaz and Mick's happy to help her. But in swampy South Florida, separating lies from truths and stupidity from brilliance isn't easy. Especially when you're after a guy like Chaz-who's bad at murder, great at fraud, and just terrible at getting caught.
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This was a very entertaining read. It will keep you laughing all the way thru.
Loved this book.
From Publishers Weekly
Hiaasen's signature mix of hilariously over-the-top villains, lovable innocents and righteous indignation at what mankind has done to his beloved Florida wilderness is all present in riotous abundance in his latest. It begins with attractive heiress Joey Perrone being tossed overboard from a cruise ship by her larcenous husband, Chaznot for her money, which she has had the good sense to keep well away from him, but because he fears she is onto his crooked dealings with a ruthless tycoon who is poisoning the Everglades. But instead of drowning as she's supposed to, Joey stays afloat until she is rescued by moody ex-cop Mick Stranahan, a loner who has also struck out in the marriage department. Then the two together, with the unwitting aid of a suspicious cop who can't pin the attempted murder on Chaz, hatch a sadistic plot to scare that "maggot" out of what little wit he has. Even Tool, a hulking brute sent by the tycoon to keep an eye on Chaz, eventually turns against him, and much of the fun is in watching the deplorable Chaz flounder further and further in the murk, both literally and figuratively (Chaz's job, as the world's unlikeliest marine biologist, involves falsifying water pollution levels for the tycoon).
Hiaasen's signature mix of hilariously over-the-top villains, lovable innocents and righteous indignation at what mankind has done to his beloved Florida wilderness is all present in riotous abundance in his latest. It begins with attractive heiress Joey Perrone being tossed overboard from a cruise ship by her larcenous husband, Chaznot for her money, which she has had the good sense to keep well away from him, but because he fears she is onto his crooked dealings with a ruthless tycoon who is poisoning the Everglades. But instead of drowning as she's supposed to, Joey stays afloat until she is rescued by moody ex-cop Mick Stranahan, a loner who has also struck out in the marriage department. Then the two together, with the unwitting aid of a suspicious cop who can't pin the attempted murder on Chaz, hatch a sadistic plot to scare that "maggot" out of what little wit he has. Even Tool, a hulking brute sent by the tycoon to keep an eye on Chaz, eventually turns against him, and much of the fun is in watching the deplorable Chaz flounder further and further in the murk, both literally and figuratively (Chaz's job, as the world's unlikeliest marine biologist, involves falsifying water pollution levels for the tycoon).
Very funny. Fast reading
A silly but enjoyable book. Easy read, although the author randomly throws in a "big word" every once in a while.
Very, very funny book.
Another fun romp from Hiaasen and the wacky denizens of South Florida. This one is about a woman, Joey Perrone, who is thrown from a cruise ship by her husband, Chaz Perrone. But why did Chaz try to murder his wife who survives the attempt and ends up seeking vengeance on her scumbag husband? Joey is rescued after clinging to a bale of marijuana floating in the Atlantic by Mick Stranahan (who was also the protagonist in SKIN TIGHT, one of my favorite Hiaasen novels). Joey doesn't want to report her attempted murder to the police because she feels it would be her word against Chaz's. So she convinces Stranahan to help her try to drive Chaz crazy by a series of bizarre actions. Chaz is a young marine biologist who obtained his PhD with the help of a shady farm owner named Red Hammernut, who is paying Chaz to report bogus data related to fertilizer pollutants coming from Hammernut's farm into the Everglades. Another character in the novel is Edward "Tool" O'Toole, a very large hairy individual, who works for Hammernut as a sometimes body guard, is a fentanyl addict who goes to nursing homes to steal fentanyl patches, and who also collects roadside crosses for his backyard. There is also Karl Rolvaag, a County detective investigating the disappearance of Joey who also has a couple of pet pythons that may be killing his neighbors' pets. In addition, Skink, the former governor of Florida who lives in the swamps makes a couple of brief but timely appearances.
As usual, this one was full of great characters as only Hiaasen can write them. It also was very topical with Hiaasen focusing on the environmental issue of the pollution and restoration of the Everglades. This wasn't my favorite Hiaasen novel but I would still heartily recommend it.
As usual, this one was full of great characters as only Hiaasen can write them. It also was very topical with Hiaasen focusing on the environmental issue of the pollution and restoration of the Everglades. This wasn't my favorite Hiaasen novel but I would still heartily recommend it.
Fast moving and full of surprises. Haiassen has done it again!
This is my first time reading a novel by Carl Hiaasen, and I was intrigued by the interesting plot. Marine biologist Chaz Perrone throws his beautiful wife, Joey, off the side of a cruise ship on their 5th anniversary cruise. Joey miraculously survives the attempted murder, and spends the rest of the novel seeking revenge against her cowardly, sneaky husband. There are many peripheral funny S. Florida characters and a side plot about Everglades pollution. All in all, a satisfying novel full of plot twists and actions you just don't see coming.
Not a big thinking but a great novel anyway. Made the ideas come to mind of how things are done by desperate people. Enjoyed the book so much mom and husband read it too!
This is a very funny mystery, I was smiling all the way thru it.
Hilarious mix of the human 'condition' , be it stupidity, greed or something more honorable as it can only develop in Florida
