Double Whammy [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Carl Hiaasen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1996 | Series: G K Hall Large Print Book Series

R.J. Decker, star tenant of the local trailer park and neophyte private eye is fishing for a killer. Thanks to a sportsman's scam that's anything but sportsmanlike, there's a body floating in Coon Bog, Florida -- and a lot that's rotten in the murky waters of big-stakes, large-mouth bass tournaments. Here Decker will team up with a half-blind, half-mad hermit with an appetite for road kill; dare to kiss his ex-wife while she's in bed with her new husband; and face deadly TV evangelists, dangerously seductive women, and a pistol-toting redneck with a pit bull on his arm. And here his own life becomes part of the stakes. For while the "double whammy" is the lure, first prize is for the most ingenious murder.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A Miami Herald reporter who struck a blow against corrupt entrepreneurs in Tourist Season, Hiaasen follows through with this acid satire, a real double whammy. Private detective R. J. Decker is hired to prove that TV host Dickie Lockhart cheats to win fortunes in Florida bass-fishing tournaments. The investigation makes Decker a prey to hired killers who have murdered other "snoops," but the detective also finds a strong if weird ally in a hermit who calls himself Skink. Along with two honest cops, Skink goes with Decker to the lake where a big tournament is under way and the four make a tremendous splash, to the dismay of the assembly. Hardest hit is Reverend Weeb, Lockhart's sponsor on the Outdoor Christian Network, whose generous supporters don't know that he's addicted to prostitutes, profanity and land-grabbing. The cast of bizarre characters and the suspenseful events confirm Hiaasen's reputation for creating singular villains and heroes. While he's probably unpopular among some fellow citizens in his home state, he will certainly please readers who appreciate the Swiftian wit in his cautionary tales.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The "double whammy" is a special lure used in the competitive bass fishing underlying the plot of this thriller by Miami journalist Hiaasen ( The Tourist Season ). Someone is cheating at bass fishing competitions, and people are getting killed. Enter R.J. Decker, former photojournalist and ex-con. Decker teams up with Skink, an unbelievable character who lives in a forest shack, eats road-killed animals, and reads Dostoyevsky (and turns out to be the ex-governor of Florida). Decker's an unlikely hero, always a step behind. Other characters include the usual corrupt TV evangelists, rednecks, smart black policemen, and betrayingly beautiful women. The action is swift, and there are some very funny scenes. Louise A. Merriam, L.E. Phillips Memorial P.L., Eau Claire, Wis.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 501 pages
• Publisher: G K Hall & Co; Lrg edition (April 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0783816456
• ISBN-13: 978-0783816456
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,881,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carl Hiaasen was born and raised in Florida, where he still lives with his incredibly tolerant family and numerous personal demons.

A graduate of the University of Florida, at age 23 he joined The Miami Herald as a general assignment reporter and went on to work for the paper's weekly magazine and later its prize-winning investigations team. Since 1985 Hiaasen has been writing a regular column, which at one time or another has pissed off just about everybody in South Florida, including his own bosses. He has outlasted almost all of them, and his column still appears on most Sundays in The Herald's opinion-and-editorial section. It may be viewed online at www.miamiherald.com or in the actual printed edition of the newspaper, which, miraculously, is still being published.

For his journalism and commentary, Hiaasen has received numerous state and national honors, including the Damon Runyon Award from the Denver Press Club. His work has also appeared in many well-known magazines, including Sports Illustrated, Playboy, Time, Life, Esquire and, most improbably, Gourmet.

In the early 1980s, Hiaasen began writing novels with his good friend and distinguished journalist, the late William D. Montalbano. Together they produced three mystery thrillers -- Powder Burn, Trap Line and Double Whammy -- which borrowed heavily from their own reporting experiences.

Tourist Season, published in 1986, was Hiaasen's first solo novel. GQ magazine called it "one of the 10 best destination reads of all time," although it failed to frighten a single tourist away from Florida, as Hiaasen had hoped it might. His next effort, Double Whammy, was the first (and possibly the only) novel about sex, murder and corruption on the professional bass-fishing circuit.

Since then, Hiaasen has published nine others -- Skin Tight, Native Tongue, Strip Tease, Stormy Weather, Lucky You, Sick Puppy, Basket Case, Skinny Dip, The Downhill Lie and Nature Girl. Hiaasen made his children's book debut with Hoot (2002), which was awarded a Newbery Honor and spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller lists. For young readers he went on to write the bestselling Flush (2005) and, most recently Scat (January 2009). The film version of Hoot was released in 2006, directed by Wil Shriner and produced by Jimmy Buffett and Frank Marshall. ("Hoot" is now available on DVD).

Hiaasen is also responsible for Team Rodent (1998), a wry but unsparing rant against the Disney empire and its creeping grip on the American entertainment culture. In 2008, Hiaasen came back to nonfiction with The Downhill Lie: A Hacker's Return to a Ruinous Sport. The book chronicles his harrowing and ill-advised reacquaintance with golf after a peaceful, 32-year absence.

Together, Hiaasen's novels have been published in 34 languages, which is 33 more than he is able to read or write. Still, he has reason to believe that all the foreign translations are brilliantly faithful to the original work. The London Observer has called him "America's finest satirical novelist," while Janet Maslin of the New York Times has compared him to Preston Sturges, Woody Allen and S.J. Perelman. Hiaasen re-reads those particular reviews no more than eight or nine times a day.

To prove that he doesn't just make up all the sick stuff in his fiction, Hiaasen has also published two collections of his newspaper columns, Kick A** and Paradise Screwed, both courageously edited by Diane Stevenson and faithfully kept in print by the University Press of Florida.

One of Hiaasen's previous novels, Strip Tease, became a major motion-picture in 1996 starring Demi Moore, and directed by Andrew Bergman. Despite what some critics said, Hiaasen continues to insist that the scene featuring Burt Reynolds slathered from his neck to his toes with Vaseline is one of the high points in modern American cinema.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hiaasen's funniest book--and THAT is saying something!, May 3, 2000

By 

Gary Jonas "author of Modern Sorcery" (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Double Whammy (Mass Market Paperback)

I stumbled across one of those bass fishing shows a few days before I read this book. I couldn't believe people would sit around and watch people fish! But they do. And Hiaasen had a ball writing about it, too.

This book has so many great moments. Skink and the poodle is one of the funniest things I've ever read. I laughed so hard, tears streamed down my face. I called a friend and tried to read the scene over the phone, but I couldn't stop laughing. It's all right, my friend knew I was crazy. He rushed out and bought the book, though! The pit bull in the trailer park scene and the aftermath is also priceless. I guess this is Hiaasen's dog book as well as his fish book.

Needless to say, if you haven't read Hiaasen, start with this one. You'll be hooked.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the funniest books ever written!, August 10, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Double Whammy (Mass Market Paperback)

Carl Hiaasen has taken wonderfully wacky characters such as Skink, a mystery giant who wears a glass eye retrieved from a stuffed owl and who dines on road kill, and has turned them into individuals that you have to love. Hiassen's villians, while bad, will capture the reader's imaginations with their total ineptude.

This is the first book that I have read by Hiaasen, but the outrageous humor contained in the twists and turns of the plot, centered around a bass fishing tournament, have convinced me to read his other works.

Although this was the funniest book I believe I have ever read, Hiaasen, makes his real message, enviornmental destruction, loud and clear and if the reader is not an enviornmentalist before reading the book, there is a good chance s/he will put the book down believing there is work to be done in saving our county, whether it be the swamp lands that Hiaasen weaves into his tale, or perhaps the mountains or lakes in our own back yards!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully Wacky!, December 20, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Double Whammy (Mass Market Paperback)

This is also my favorite of the Hiaasen books, with Native Tongue and Tourist Season following. Hiaasen has a fabulous sense of chaos and absurdity. My husband and I laugh aloud at the bizarre events and characters that people his world. But there's enough underlying grit to make it all weirdly real, and definitely the underlying humanity to make it moving.