Pan books, London 2001

Hiaasen seems to be a very successful writer, maybe so, because his books always have two-word-titles, so the reader does not get overworked. I learn, that Hiaasen used to work as an investigative reporter and I think, the reason why he has turned to writing fiction might be his frustration with real-life politics.

In this book he lives out his fantasies. He allows his hero, eco-enthusiast Twilly Spree, a young man of independent means, to terrorize people, who throw pizza cartons and cans out of car windows by setting their cars on fire or kidnapping their dogs. His latest victim is Palmer Stout, a successful lobbyist. He kidnaps his labrador and wife only to find out, that both are much happier with him than with their former owner. Stout´s most ambitious project is a gigantic development scheme for a small island in Florida, up to that moment only inhabited by a frog population. Nasty murders happen, wild sex fantasies are described, but Hiaasen puts in so much narrative overdrive, that the reader doesn´t take anything too seriously. The weirdest and funniest scene occurs during a hunting trip with Stout and his political cronies.

In the end some are gored by a senile elephant, their expected prey, or shoot each other by accident.