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Bad Monkey Kindle Edition

4.3 out of 5 stars 9,955

A wickedly funny novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Squeeze Me in which the greedy, the corrupt, and the degraders of what’s left of pristine Florida—now, of the Bahamas as well—get their comeuppance.

“[A] comedic marvel … [Hiaasen] hasn’t written a novel this funny since
Skinny Dip.”—The New York Times

Andrew Yancy—late of the Miami Police and soon-to-be-late of the Monroe County sheriff’s office—has a human arm in his freezer. There’s a logical (Hiaasenian) explanation for that, but not for how and why it parted from its shadowy owner. Yancy thinks the boating-accident/shark-luncheon explanation is full of holes, and if he can prove murder, the sheriff might rescue him from his grisly Health Inspector gig (it’s not called the roach patrol for nothing). But first—this being Hiaasen country—Yancy must negotiate an obstacle course of wildly unpredictable events with a crew of even more wildly unpredictable characters, including his just-ex lover, a hot-blooded fugitive from Kansas; the twitchy widow of the frozen arm; two avariciously optimistic real-estate speculators; the Bahamian voodoo witch known as the Dragon Queen, whose suitors are blinded unto death by her peculiar charms; Yancy’s new true love, a kinky coroner; and the eponymous bad monkey, who with hilarious aplomb earns his place among Carl Hiaasen’s greatest characters.

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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Booklist reviews of recent Hiaasen novels (Nature Girl, 2006) have noted his step back from apocalyptic plots. That trend continues with a shambolic comic tale of garden-variety Florida crime: a wealthy Medicare fraudster appears to have died in a boating accident. The only evidence of death is his arm, which is reeled in by a hapless vacationer. Enter Andrew Yancy, once and future Monroe County detective. He thinks the fraudster was murdered by his wife, and if he can prove it, he can get his old job back and leave restaurant inspections behind. Think of Yancy as a Hiaasenian knight aberrant. He means well, but many of his problems are hilariously self-inflicted. His efforts take him from Key West to Miami to Andros Island, Bahamas, and back again. A huge cast of characters and a stunningly polyfurcated plot offer Hiaasen room to wow readers with information on grave robbery, restaurant-kitchen horrors, autoerotic asphyxiation, and even tips for beating Homeland Security’s radar to fly into South Florida. And there is also a delightful interlude of canoodling on the tuna tower of a Key West charter boat as well as no-holds-barred portraits of the Dragon Queen—a loopy, libidinous, old Bahamian “woo-doo” practitioner—and the titular Bad Monkey. Plot convolutions twice cause him to insert multipage explanations of what’s going on, but as always, Hiaasen is laugh-out-loud funny and thoroughly entertaining. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Hiaasen’s crime fiction crossed over to mainstream bestsellerdom early on in his career, and his fan base continues to grow. --Thomas Gaughan

Review

“[A] comedic marvel ... [Hiaasen] hasn’t written a novel this funny since Skinny Dip.... Beautifully constructed.”
—Janet Maslin,
The New York Times
 
“[A] deliciously zany romp. Buckle up for the ride.”
People
 
Bad Monkey boils over with corruption and comeuppance. And yes, there’s a monkey.”
O, The Oprah Magazine
 
“[A] rollicking misadventure in the colorful annals of greed and corruption in South Florida.... Hiaasen has a peculiar genius for inventing grotesque creatures ... that spring from the darkest impulses of the id. But he also writes great heroes.”
—Marilyn Stasio,
The New York Times
 
“This ‘Triple-F’—fierce, funny, and Floridian ... enfolds corruption, greed, mayhem, and very funny social satire in the way that only Hiaasen does it.”
Reader’s Digest
 
“[Hiaasen is] one of America’s premier humorists.”
—Rege Behe,
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
 
“No one writes about Florida with a more wicked sense of humor than Hiaasen.”
—Jocelyn McClurg,
USA Today
 
“The gold standard for South Florida criminal farce.”
Kirkus Reviews
 
“Inspired ... Another marvelously entertaining Hiaasen adventure.”
Publishers Weekly
 
“Hiaasen is laugh-out-loud funny and thoroughly entertaining.”
Booklist (starred review)

Praise for the work of Carl Hiaasen
 
“Carl Hiaasen isn’t just Florida’s sharpest satirist—he’s one of the few funny writers left in the whole country ... I think of him as a national treasure.”
—Malcolm Jones,
Newsweek
 
“Does anyone remember what we did for fun before Hiaasen began turning out his satirical comedies?”
—S
an Francisco Chronicle
 
“Hiaasen [is] a superb national satirist ... A great American writer about the great American subjects of ambition, greed, vanity and disappointment.”
Entertainment Weekly
 
“Hiaasen’s wasteland is as retributive as Cormac McCarthy’s, but funnier....  [His] pacing is impeccable, and the scenes follow one another like Lay’s potato chips.”
The New York Times Book Review
 
“Hiaasen [is] king of the screwball comedies ... A truly original comic novelist ... The charismatic, animated characters deliver lines that will bring tears of laughter to even the most jaundiced readers ... This is top-notch storytelling by a truly original comic novelist.”
Rocky Mountain News
 
“Carl Hiaasen is a lot like Evelyn Waugh.... Both simmer with rage; both are consumed with the same overwhelming vision ... [both] write the funniest English of this century.”
The Washington Post
 
“Hiaasen [is] in the company of Preston Sturges, Woody Allen, and S. J. Perelman.”
—Janet Maslin,
The New York Times
 
“A big-hearted and deeply funny book ... All of Carl Hiaasen’s obsessions are on full-tilt boogie.”
The Seattle Times
 
“Hiaasen, like Elmore Leonard, shouldn’t be missed....
Hiaasen throws his colorful characters into an increasingly frenetic mix, and the fun lies in watching how, or if, they’ll manage to extricate themselves.”
San Francisco Chronicle
 
“Whenever it seems as if he might be running out of oxen to gore, Hiaasen comes up with fresh victims for his killing wit. [He is] Florida’s most entertainingly indignant social critic . . . Outlandish events soar on the exuberance of Hiaasen’s manic style, a canny blend of lunatic farce and savage satire.”
—Marilyn Stasio,
The New York Times Book Review
 
“A whole lot ‘Survivor,’ a little bit ‘The Tempest,’ with a pinch of Laurel and Hardy ... Hiaasen is always good for a number of laugh-aloud scenes and lines ... His ear is pitch-perfect.”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
 
“Hilarious ... A lifelong resident of the Sunshine State, [Hiaasen’s] novels have always addressed the state’s ecological and social ills with scathing satire, ironic comeuppance and an ever-evolving sensibility.”
Time Out New York

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00AP2VR8W
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (June 11, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 11, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4125 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 337 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 9,955

About the author

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Carl Hiaasen
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Carl Hiaasen was born and raised in Florida, where he still lives. He is a prize-winning journalist with a regular column in the Miami Herald and many articles in varied magazines. He started writing crime fiction in the early 1980s and has recently branched out into children's books; he has also had several works of non-fiction published.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
9,955 global ratings
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Light and fun. Read it in Costa Rica Felt the hest and bugs added to my perspective and enjoyment
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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2024
Easy read. Delightfully fun. Great characters, decent crime story. Just fun. Really enjoyed it. Highly recommend Carl Hiassen; especially if you’re traveling The Keys.
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2024
Hiaasen at his best. Likeable characters, loveable characters, and characters you're designed to love to hate all mesh perfectly in this witty suspense thriller. The twists and turns were enjoyable. There were a few short lived moments wherein the plot or scene was a tad convoluted. But it all ironed itself out into a crisp, fun and unique experience.
One person found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2023
Well crafted plot, great and believable characters, just the right amount of drama, comedy and plot twists. Tasteful sex scenes (poor choice of words). Good, light-hearted read.
Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2013
Now and then you just need a Hiassen, it's like a trip to Vegas, once every three years is about right. So I have read them all, some more than once. Clearly I am a fan, I even give them as gifts occasionally, usually to friends who live in South Florida I want to annoy.

Unfortunately Bad Monkey was a disappointment beginning with the Monkey himself who was just disgusting even by Hiaasen standards and added nothing to the story. I even disliked the picture and tossed the cover the day I bought the book. But it's a Hiaasen so it's a keeper and has his wonderfully outrageous humor, his amazingly good prose and the same satirical outrage with the evolution of his beloved Florida that makes all of his books so enjoyable.

But this one is too disjointed, the characters are less lovable and the hero less, well...heroic than his usual stuff. This is not his worst book, he really doesn't have a best or worst book but it is not quite as enjoyable as most. Try again Carl....soon.
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2024
This book was good with plenty of twists and turns to make it interesting. That said, it wasn’t a favorite Hiaasen for me. Others have been better.
Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2023
Love Carl’s book. Entertaining, well written and will have you laughing from page one! Definitely a must read! Can’t wait to start the second book in the series!
Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2023
Just when you think Carl Hiaasen has tapped into just about every type of crazy you might find in Florida, he dredges up something new, gives it an everglades-alligator spin, and leaves you wanting more. "Bad Monkey" starts with a tourist's nightmare: snagging a human arm instead of the big fish they'd hoped to catch, but they make the most of it, especially since the hand on the arm appeared to be giving everyone on the boat the finger.

Enter Andrew Yancy, suspended from the sheriff's office for assaulting a man with a vacuum cleaner and tasked with transporting the arm. "Yancy knew the sheriff was sending the arm to Miami [from the Keys] because Miami was the floating-human-body-parts capital of America."

Hiaasen's style drives the narrative as much as his ability to weave a weaving plot; examples are everywhere. Here's just one from early in the book: "During his sixteen years as a road patrol officer, Sonny Summers had received numerous commendations for not f***ing up on the job... One year he led the whole force in DUI arrests, a highly competitive category in the Keys."

As for the plot? I'm sure I'd botch it if I tried to summarize it, with all the characters, their various motivations and shenanigans.... so I'll just assure you if you've loved Hiaasen for his zany unpredictability, you'll appreciate this particular story, its unique characters, and general fun.

Read it if you're feeling lousy about the state of things. It will make you smile.
One person found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 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
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars entertaining and nostalgic
Reviewed in Canada on March 1, 2023
Good story and as someone that use to stomp around the gulf side of FL and The Keys the descriptors of the local and people rang true. Loved it!
Xander Lee
5.0 out of 5 stars A Wild & Witty Adventure: "Bad Monkey" by Carl Hiaasen!
Reviewed in Germany on January 10, 2023
I recently read the book "Bad Monkey" by Carl Hiaasen and it was an absolute blast. The book is filled with hilarious characters and wild adventures. The writing is witty and engaging and the book is packed with action and unexpected twists. Highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun and entertaining read!
Sam
5.0 out of 5 stars Bad Monkey in a fun romp
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 15, 2019
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.
2 people found this helpful
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elholandes
1.0 out of 5 stars Hojas mal cortadas
Reviewed in Spain on April 4, 2017
Pedi este libro y cuando lo recibi, vi que las hojas estaban mal cortadas. Unas hojas eran mas grandes que otras, etcetera. Devolví el libro que recibí, y me enviaron otro. Por mi sorpresa, tiene el mismo problema. No tengo tiempo ni ganas de pedir otra vez la devolución, y me lo quedo. Con un mal sabor en la boca.
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Carl Hiaasen returning to form!
Reviewed in France on April 21, 2015
I'm reading Bad Monkey. Carl Hiaasen finally returning to form in this book, after some sloppy writing in, a.o. Sick Puppy and another book the name of which I don't even remember, both of which made me stop reading him for a while.
But this book just has it all again. Crazy critters, human and animal, unexpected turns of events, each one funnier, crazier than the next. And just when you think it cannot get any crazier, it does.
The wonderful thing about good writing by Carl Hiaasen, is that he can make crazy seem, if not normal, at least acceptable. It makes you feel things could happen like that.
Bad Monkey, a great, crazy, funny, hilarious read :)
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