"Good, mean fun...A twisting, high-speed ride on a roller coaster without brakes." SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Somebody wants Mick Stranahan dead, and the list of possible players is long: the plastic surgeon with the extremely shaky hands, the sleazy lawyer who advertises, the TV host whose taste for sensationalism is exceeded only by his vanity, and the hit man whose skin problems could fill a comprehensive (if bizarre) medical textbook. The whole thing is downright harrowing. It's Hiaasen at his best. And his best is very, very good. A Selection of the Literary Guild, the Doubleday Book Club and the Mystery Guild
"Hiaasen's latest thriller is his funniest and sharpest novel to date. Set in a south Florida swarming with ripoff artists, crooked cops, nude sunbathers and corrupt politicians, it features a Mafia-connected plastic surgeon with butterfingers, a bitchy Hollywood starlet, a remarkably inept hit man and a pompous TV journalist 'nationally famous for getting beaten up on camera,' " said PW. Author tour. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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.
This review is from: Skin Tight (Mass Market Paperback)
I am always amused when I see Hiassen's books referred to as 'mysteries' or 'thrillers'. People who want these kinds of books won't really find them in Hiassen's work. What he creates are darkly comic morality plays about excess - specifically that of south Florida. What is wonderful about his books, apart from the zany characters, great dialogue and memorable absurdaties, is that in each one we see the 'forces of evil' suffer the fates they deserve. Maybe good doesn't triumph in real life, but Hiassen gives us the satisfaction of seeing horrible things happen to horrible people.
In Skin Tight, Hiassen gives us his usual cast of interesting and very peculiar players drawn from the mix of modern day Miami. Without giving any of the plot away, I will only say that there are two things about this book that I bet will stay with any reader: the fate that befalls the vain and insufferable TV host in his Geraldolike quest at expose and the character Chemo's choice of a prosthesis - a weed-whacker. These are a couple of the overthetop high points in Skin Tight, one of Hiaseen's grizzliest and funniest tales.
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"Skin Tight" is one of Carl Hiaasen's earlier novels. Given the consistent quality of Hiaasen's prolific and wickedly funny skewering of south Florida and its wacky inhabitants, it is difficult to pick a Hiaasen "best", but "Skin Tight" is definitely a contender. In other works, Hiaasen has taken on south Florida institutions from televangelism to trophy bass fishing to stripping. In "Skin Tight", he tackles cosmetic surgery as the unlikely but content-rich target. Fans of this summer's Hiaasen bestseller, "Skinny Dip", will find this introduction to retired state investigator Mick Stranahan a somewhat darker and more grisly prequel. Cast with the author's usual collection of miscreants, sleaze balls, corrupt officials and incompetent crooks, "Skin Tight" ricochets from one bizarre and brutal high jinx to next, each one more depraved and disturbed than the previous. Given the seemingly endless stream of mayhem and murder in this zany tale, superlatives are risky, but certainly the method in which two terminally corrupt Miami detectives are dispatched is especially memorable.
Yet at the core of Hiaasen's carefully crafted chaos and black humor lies an insightful dissection of the shallowness and material corruption of American culture. In a tribute to Hiaasen's skills considerable literary skills, these messages never overshadow the entertainment value, nor require "progressive" political views to be appreciated. Ironic, sarcastic, and biting, "Skin Tight" represents another page-turner from Carl Hiaasen, today's undisputed master of mordancy.
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This review is from: Skin Tight (Mass Market Paperback)
This was my first Carl Hiaasen book and I thought it was terrific. The characters are excellent, the story moved along at a brisk pace and some of it was downright hilarious. After reading more serious crime/thriller type novels, this was a great break. I tore through the book quickly. People looked at me funny when I laughed out loud on the exercise bike or treadmill trying to read as much as possible, anxious to find out what happens next. I will definitely order more books from Hiassen in the future!!
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First Sentence:
On the third of January, a leaden, blustery day, two tourists from Covington, Tennessee, removed their sensible shoes to go strolling on the beach at Key Biscayne. Read the first pageKey Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
tarpon gaff, marine patrolman, curly eyebrows, marlin head, stilt house, wood chipper, tree trimmer
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Rudy Graveline, Mick Stranahan, Kipper Garth, Christina Marks, Reynaldo Flemm, Maggie Gonzalez, George Graveline, Joe Salazar, New York, Whispering Palms, John Murdock, Roberto Pepsical, Victoria Barletta, Timmy Gavigan, Weed Whacker, New Jersey, George Ginger, Heather Chappell, Key Biscayne, Biscayne Bay, Vicky Barletta, Chloe Simpkins Stranahan, Dade County, Wet Willie, Gay Bidet
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