Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen - review
I read Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen. This is my first foray into the works of Carl Hiaasen and I have to admit that, other than the provocative cover and title, it was worth my time. The book is billed as a comedy that takes the reader on a humorous romp into attempted murder and extortion in south Florida. You go into the Keyes, the Everglades, get some history on the biggest river in the world (the Everglades) and pollution. In truth, I wasn't really expecting a lot from the book and ended up being pleasantly surprised.
For starters, the book starts with Chaz Perrone throwing his wife overboard on their second anniversary cruise. He'd wanted to do it earlier in the voyage, but the weather, being good, stopped him from doing that and he had to wait until they were nearly back to Florida before he could perpetuate the crime. Attempted murder is a bad thing. He'd done some research, and by all accounts the reader is led to believe that his research may even help him get away with it.
An interesting side note is that most homicides that are actually solved because the family member or friend ends up feeling bad about what they did and confess. Otherwise, most homicides go unsolved. So, what we're dealing with here is fiction. In reality, Chaz would kill his wife, feel bad, tell someone, and then be arrested. In this story he hides the truth from everyone, including his mistress and his evil employer.
Joey Perrone is the victim. By victim I mean she is the one thrown overboard and left for dead. She doesn't die in the fall (she turns it into a dive) and then begins to tread water and swim toward the Florida coast line, which she can see. Instead of making it to Florida (all this is in the first several pages of the book by the by) she gets tired, cold, and ends up clinging to a bail of marijuana floating in the Atlantic before being rescued by the protagonist Mick Stranahan. An ex-cop and state investigator who lives a reclusive life on an abandoned island in the Keyes. He doesn't much like people and has a history with women. A real winner. And in truth, he is written as a real winner.
The plot of the book follows Chaz and Joey in their various endeavors. Chaz is trying to avoid being caught in the murder attempt (and the pile of lies) and Joey is trying to make him think he is going crazy, while at the same time give him his comeuppance while trying to figure out why he did it. Chaz thinks she's dead and attributes all of the things happening around him to someone else, while Joey, with the help of Mick, masterminds the messing with Chaz's mind and all of the junk happening around him.
To add to the cast of characters is Tool, a large goon who develops a heart of gold after meeting an invalid in a nursing home, a police detective that will not leave Chaz alone, or the case - who also has two pet pythons and is moving back to Minnesota because it's cold up there, Chaz's principle mistress (and potential murder victim later in the book) as well as various other odd and unique characters that show up at different times throughout the story.
In truth, as I hit the last several pages of the book, the last couple of chapters, I'd been really grooving with the story and really hip on what was happening and then Chaz was discovered. Joey'd come out of hiding. Ricca (the mistress) had developed really well, and Tool had developed a heart and the story just kept going. Instead of Chaz being arrested he's abducted, and instead of prison or the chair the story is left up in the air with yet another unique, and twisted, character leading him off through the swamp and the implication being that Chaz wouldn't survive for very long. However, the book ends with Chaz naked, in the Everglades, scared, and dirty and you don't know what is going to happen to him.
The ending was a little hard to get through, especially at midnight when you have to be awake first thing in the morning, and at the same time the story was fun to read. The twists just kept coming. And every time I thought I had Hiaason figured out, I didn't. The twists I figured he was writing into the book ended up not happening and by the end he's tied the plot up into a neat little package and sent it off to its recipient. By the end, he'd written a very good jaunt through Florida, corruption, and naked women treading water.
Now, with all that said, this book drops into long passages where there is a lot of swearing and vulgarity. If that affects you (it does me) than this may not be the best book to read because the author uses a lot of language. To counterpoint this one of his topics is sex and he never graphically describes anything going on. You are treated to the periphery but the characters are left with their dignity (can you do that?).