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It was boggling to realize that an elevated ribbon of dirt was essentially all that separated 5 million raucous, distracted human beings from the prehistoric solitude of the Everglades. The detective regretted that during his hitch in South Florida he hadn't spent more time on the other side of the levee; the sane and peaceful side.

Carl Hiaasen take us for a rollercoaster ride through the insane and troublesome side of the levee. A place where husbands throw their wives overboard during the cruise for their second wedding anniversary. A place where corrupt industrial farmers bribe fake scientists to falsify water pollution reports so they can continue to destroy the Everglades National Park. A place where migrant workers are slaving away under the supervision of brutal and illiterate hitmen. A place where police officers keep large pythons as pets in their apartments and paid killers collect memorial crosses from the side of the road.

I have read and enjoyed the novels of Carl Hiaasen before, and Skinny Dip is one of his better efforts. His signature touches are wacky characters, complicated plots where inept criminals are brought down by their own stupidity, hilarious dialogue and, most importantly, a genuine love for the natural environment of Florida that is getting systematically destroyed under the demnads of business. The last part and the talent for creating memorable characters is why I rate Hiaasen above the run-of-the-mill crime novelist. He is entertaining, but there is always an engagement with the issues of corruption in politics and habitat protection.

It will be difficult to make a short resume of the plot of Skinny Dip, but I would say that people who liked the movie Overboard with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn are probably going to enjoy another comedy about a rich, hot babe falling into the ocean from a pleasure ship. Instead of being amnesiac, Joey Perrone is well aware that her husband is the one who deliberately pushed her overboard. Being a skilled swimmer, and with a bit of luck in the shape of a bale of marijuana drifting in the Gulf Stream, she survives and sets out to exact revenge on her dearly beloved creep of a husband, Chaz Perrone. Joey is helped along by a reclusive former State attorney who prefers the isolation of a small private island to the bustle of civilization, by a sexy member of her Book Club, by a brother who enjoys life among sheep in New Zealand. Chaz the scoundrel is already chasing other skirts, mostly a fiery Latino hairdresser named Ricca, but, thanks to his supposedly deceased wife hauntings, he has developed, for the first time in his life, erectile disfunctions, and has extra troubles with the industrial tycoon sponsoring his illegal activities and with his assigned bodyguard, a hairy and slow witted killer for hire named Tool. The novel alternates between the points of view of the wife and of the husband, with a third thread dealing with the police investigation into the accident / suicide / murder of Joey.

Skinny Dip is a stand-alone among the novels written by Carl Hiaasen, but fans of the author will recognize some recurring personages, among them Skink, the one-eyed giant wearing a shower cap and living off the land in the middle of the swamp, as usual saving damzels in distress and dealing cruel and unusual punishment to environmental criminals.

Comedy is ensured by dialogue filled with sexual innuendo and sarcastic commentaries on married life, politics, pollution, violence. Then there's the pland going awry, the misunderstandings, the physical and even gross out humour, but mostly it is the crashing of opposing personalities that produce the sparks. I'm also enjoying the fact that there isn't a clear cut demarcation line between the good guys and the bad guys, with Joey acting outside the law in order to punish her husband and with the gorilla Tool reexamining his life choices when he becomes friends with a terminally ill woman (my favorite passage from the novel):

I believe it's never too late to change. I'm eighty-one years old, but I still think I can be a better person tomorrow than I am today. And that's what I'll believe until I run out of tomorrows.

I will be checking more of the Florida crime books by Hiaasen, as well as the rival series written by Tim Dorsey. It's difficult to pick a favorite between them: both are dealing with the environment and with the criminal underworld of the Sunshine State. I would say the psychopat Serge Storms is more volatile and vicious than Skink et Co., but Hiaasen has the better plots and the more nuanced characterization.