Bad Monkey

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Bad Monkey

Carl Hiaasen

Knopf: 2012, 317 pages

Reviewed by Tori Lyons

Andrew Yancey is a former Key West police detective who is reassigned to Health Inspector after an unfortunate incident involving his girlfriend's husband and a handheld vacuum.  When an arm is found by a tourist on a fishing excursion, Yancey sees this as his ticket back onto the force.  The unofficial investigation takes him to Miami and the Bahamas where he encounters a poncho-clad real estate developer, a kinky medical examiner, a voodoo witch, and the titular monkey, who retired to the islands after starring in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.  While I'm not generally a Hiaasen fan, I think his audiobooks are ideal for road trips.  They are light and entertaining, not requiring too much of your attention, and are humorous enough to appeal to a wide-range of travel companions.  

Spotless

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Spotless

Camilla Monk

Montlake Romance: 2015, 332 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Island Chaptal is a 25-year-old IT engineer who loves escaping into romance novels to distract her from the fact that she is also a 25-year-old virgin.  Her rather humdrum life takes a drastic turn when she comes home early from work one day to find a very attractive but very OCD hit man cleaning her apartment.  March isn't there to kill her but he wants the diamond that Island's late mother stole from a crime organization called the Board; apparently Island's mother wasn't a French diplomat as she was led to believe her whole life.  Island has no choice but to work with March whilst also avoiding all the other baddies who also want the diamond and want to dismember her.  This is an actiony-romance novel with none of the cheesy explicit scenes that are too often found in other contemporary romance novels.  

Nature Girl

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Nature Girl

Carl Hiaasen

Alfred A. Knopf: 2006, 306 pages

Reviewed by Tori Lyons

Nature Girl is a satire set in Florida that features a comical cast of bizarre characters.  After being interrupted at her dinner table by a sales call one too many times, Honey Santana goes to extreme lengths to teach the uncouth telemarketer, Boyd Shreave, a lesson.  Certainly her obsession has nothing to do with the fact that she's off her meds.  Meanwhile, Sammy Tigertail, a one-half Seminole Indian, is on the lam after a tourist dies of a heart attack while on Sammy's airboat tour of the Everglades.  Add in Honey's stalker, Louis Piejack, and her ex-husband, Perry Skinner, set the whole thing on a remote Everglades island, and you've got the makings of a standard Hiaasen story.  While the story was definitely over the top at times, it was entertaining, and I will definitely keep the author in mind next time I'm looking for a light beach read.