Bad Monkey Hardcover – Deckle Edge, June 11, 2013

Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen". . . a fun, fast read and a wild ride."BAD MONKEY is vintage Hiaasen. A quirky protagonist, surrounded by even quirkier characters, mired in odd-ball intrigue, in South Florida, of course. This story revolves around Florida Keys detective Andrew Yancy, newly busted to the role of restaurant inspector, aka "roach patrol," for attacking one Dr. Clifford Witt, husband of a former Yancy lover, with a hand-held Black & Decker vacuum cleaner. All videoed by cruise liner tourists with cell phones in hand. Yancy embarks on several hit and miss attempts to get his badge back. No easy proposition. Particularly since his boss, Sheriff Sonny Summers, opinion is that Yancy was lucky they didn't "charge you with sodomy."But the warm waters off the Florida Keys offer up salvation in the form of a severed arm, middle finger extended as if to say, well you know. Seems the arm belonged to a wealthy crook, who scammed various medical insurance companies for millions, only to die in a boating accident, leaving the arm behind to be hooked by a tourist on a fishing charter. But in Hiaasen's world things are never as they seem. Not even close.The police want the missing arm case as well as a murder and a suicide (or not) to go quietly into the archives. But, Yancy doesn't buy it. He sees nefarious activity in the shadows. And he has a plan. Solve the murder, disprove the suicide, and prove that the wife offed the arm's previous owner. Or did she? Tie up all these loose ends and they'll have to return his badge. Won't they?This story is totally Hiassen. It bounces around the Keys, South Florida, and the Bahamas. Reminiscent of his earlier works such as SKINNY DIP, STORMY WEATHER, and STRIP TEASE, BAD MONKEY is filled with easy one-liners, believably unbelievable occurrences, and odd ball characters: love interest Dr. Rosa Campesino, a medical examiner with a penchant for sex on the dissecting table; The Egg, a homicidal brute who has Yancy in his sites; the Dragon Queen, a Bahamian scooter-riding VooDoo witch who delights in kinky sex and casting black spells; and of course Driggs, the "bad monkey." Bad doesn't quite cover it. Maybe petulant, combative, or recalcitrant. No, vile. That's the word. What else could you say about a monkey who attacks without warning and tends toward flinging excrement on a whim? Yeah, vile works.As if all this didn't fill Yancy's plate, his neighbor is constructing a massive mansion that will block Yancy's view of the water. Yancy's attempts to waylay those plans are numerous and insane (in a Hiassen sort of way).Through solving murders, tracking down folks who have gone missing, messing with his neighbor's head, and avoiding The Egg and Driggs as best he can, Yancy attempts to develop a real relationship with the good Dr. Campesino.You'll need a scorecard to keep up with all the characters, many having a couple of aliases, and all the scams within scams, but the pages will fly by. For Hiaasen fans (like me) this book will cause more than a few laugh-out -loud moments and for new fans, welcome to his world. It's a fun, fast read and a wild ride.DP Lyle, award-winning author of the Dub Walker and Samantha Cody thriller series

Lot's of fun and twists and turns.

Carl Hiaasen is a genius. Along with Elmore Leonard, Christopher Moore, and Tim Dorsey, he's on my short list of writers whose new novels I must read the moment they are released.Along those lines, I wasted no time in placing my advance order for BAD MONKEY the moment I knew it was coming out. After all, I have read all of his other adult novels--and have re-read some that I found especially well done.And make no mistake; BAD MONKEY starts out with the usual Hiaasen flair for distinctly Floridian dark humor, as a deep-sea fishing tourist hooks a severed arm with its middle finger extended. Thus begins a tale which runs up and down the Florida Keys, involving homicide detective-demoted-to-restaurant health inspector Andrew Yancy, who launches an off-the-books investigation of the suspected murder with the aid of a sexy/kinky Dade County medical examiner; the victim's widow, who seems nonplussed about her husband's demise; her daughter, who hates her stepmother as much as she loves her late father's ill-begotten estate; and a bevy of other whacked-out characters, including Yancey's fugitive ex, and a real estate speculator from upstate New York who is spoiling Yancy's corner of paradise.Yancy's investigation eventually leads him to the Bahamas, where he meets and befriends a fellow with whom he shares a common plight (the loss of the natural splendor surrounding his home). Their paths further intertwine with a voodoo queen, a hired thug named Egg, and a mangy capuchin monkey named Driggs--leading to a plot twist amid an approaching hurricane, which was at once unexpected and satisfying.Overall, BAD MONKEY is vintage Hiaasen. However, there are aspects of this book I found disappointing. For example, while conducting his investigation in the Bahamas, Yancy witnesses Driggs riding the roof of a moving vehicle. By itself, this incongruous scene is funny. But in a subsequent chapter, Hiaasen explains in depth how Driggs wound up on the roof of said vehicle--from the monkey's POV. This chapter, and some other passages--including far too many scenes involving Yancy's restaurant inspections--lent little if anything to the story's flow or advanced the plot in any appreciable manner. While reading these parts of the novel I couldn't help but think, "Can we get on with it, please?"Still, this story padding wasn't sufficient cause for me to dismiss the novel entirely. In BAD MONKEY, Hiaasen takes sardonic delight in skewering Florida cronyism while he addresses the greed-fueled destruction of his home state's environmental resources. These are common themes in his novels, yet they still hold up in BAD MONKEY. And the characters are as alternately manic and laconic as any he's introduced us to previously...although, I hope he brings back Skink next time around.BAD MONKEY is a fun romp, although it could have been better. Still, Hiaasen remains a master of his craft, and die-hard fans will enjoy this novel...hopefully, with both arms intact.

An incredibly complex plot that twists and turns, leaving the reader often perplexed and lost. You see that the author can spin a fine tale, but the sex gets boring and one is eager to get to the end. Thank goodness Hiassen kept writing, as many wonderful tales soon emerge!

I love Carl Hiaasen's work so I knew the kind tale about to be told before reading the first page and felt the usual sense of excited anticipation. Not many people blend madcap thrills with zany humour and also manage to add a healthy sense of environmental awareness.As usual the story takes place in the beautiful Florida Keys, where in this case ex detective Andrew lives earning a living inspecting food joints and enjoying his surroundings. That is until the man next door builds a large holiday home blocking his former lovely view. Much hilarity ensues as potential buyer after buyer frightened away by Andrew in a bid to eliminate this unsightly edifice.The main plot involves a widow who has supposedly lost her husband due to an accident at sea and all she has left is his arm. This intrigues Andrew and as he becomes more involves in the case the titular bad monkey makes his hilarious and very naughty appearance .The main crux of the novel is what is going on with the mysterious widow and her strange and conflicting behaviour and as usual the main protagonist gets to the bottom of it with unexpected help and crazy consequences.I loved this and will read every book written by this author. It is so nice to take another ride into a such a well thought out crime caper. Just so much fun and so well meant.

I've read all Hiaasen's Florida comic-noir, and each one feels like the best yet. I think Bad Monkey just maybe. He's a master of pace and suspense and keeping several plates spinning at once. The characters as ever are wonderful; with the usual comic grotesques and whackjob villains, eventually humiliated and defeated by flawed heroes with a moral and ecological conscience. What perhaps raises the bar even higher in this novel is the writing and breathtaking plotting. I think his eye for description and detail has grown even sharper. Hiassen's always been great but even by his standards things are moved up a notch here. The beautiful ending left me immensely satisfied that I'd spent time with this rollercoaster of a story. Carl's a great companion and I'm going to have to read all his books again. He's easily up there now with John D MacDonald among the great pulp thriller writers; and I hope he's got a few more in him.

Another excellent adult novel from Carl Hiaasen. This one set in the Florida Keys and the Bahamas with an engaging new protagonist. The mix of murder mystery, ecology and vitriolic satire is as engaging as ever and balances darkness and hope brilliantly. Would that real life provided suitable come-uppances for villains. Do read it.

I just kept laughing throughout this, not because of punchlines but Hiaasen's commentary and observations of Florida life. While it is funny much of his humour does have a root in ecology, politics and corruption so there is a serious message. Love his work.

Hiaasen is a total master of the genre. Mind you not too many guys target ecological crime writing as a career; so let us safely say that he is the most famous and best of all Norwegian-American ecological crime-writers ... there I have said itThe plot may be a tad thinner than usual here but it is all the more compensated by the fact that his writing style seems to be getting more and more tight and to the point through the years. I have read most of the earlier works and his prose on the page is now crisper tidier the images clearer and more HD than ever before; some writers like musicians lose their sharpness as time unfolds but not he; in the words of Lou Reed: "As a good wine he gets better as he gets older"HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!