Charles "Chaz" Perrone fancies himself a take-charge kind of guy. So when this "biologist by default" suspects that his curvaceous wife, Joey, has stumbled onto a profitable pollution scam he's running on behalf of Florida agribusiness mogul Red Hammernut, he sets out right away to solve the problem--by heaving Joey off the deck of a luxury cruise liner and into the Atlantic Ocean, far from Key West. But--whoops!--Joey, a former swimming champ, doesn't drown. Instead, as Carl Hiaasen tells in his 10th adult novel, Skinny Dip, she makes her way back to shore, thanks both to a wayward bale of Jamaican marijuana and lonerish ex-cop Mick Stranahan (Skin Tight, 1989), and then launches a bogus blackmail campaign that's guaranteed to drive her lazy, libidinous hubby into a self-protective frenzy.

You've got to hand it to Hiaasen: He's perfected a formula for crisply written, satirical crime fiction that makes the best use of imaginatively repulsive villains, as well as less thoroughly venal scoundrels and victims who ultimately overcome their antagonists, all while stumping for the preservation of Florida's environment, particularly the Everglades. In Skinny Dip, we find Chaz (who'd rather be golfing than puttering around the "hot, buggy, funky-smelling and treacherous" reaches of nature) falsifying water samples to help Hammernut turn the 'Glades into "God’s septic tank." That scheme, though, is endangered not just by Joey's sudden disappearance, but by the suspicions of a python-loving police detective and Chaz's own outstanding inability to tame his Viagra-enhanced tumescence. Even by assigning Chaz a baby-sitter--the hulking, hirsute, and painkiller-addicted Tool--Hammernut can't keep his pet biologist out of trouble. As Joey and Stranahan unfold their revenge plot, and Tool's conscience grows in competition with Chaz's ego, the reader can only marvel at the extent of the train wreck ahead.

As much fun as Hiaasen has delivering Chaz his climactic comeuppance, what's missing from Skinny Dip is a more complex, more credible development of Mick Stranahan's character and the relationship he builds with the much younger Joey Perrone. Like Erin Grant, from Strip Tease, Joey has far more going for her than her bra-cup size; but "hero" Stranahan is of far less interest here than any of his fellow players. --J. Kingston Pierce

From Publishers Weekly
Hiaasen's signature mix of hilariously over-the-top villains, lovable innocents and righteous indignation at what mankind has done to his beloved Florida wilderness is all present in riotous abundance in his latest. It begins with attractive heiress Joey Perrone being tossed overboard from a cruise ship by her larcenous husband, Chaz—not for her money, which she has had the good sense to keep well away from him, but because he fears she is onto his crooked dealings with a ruthless tycoon who is poisoning the Everglades. But instead of drowning as she's supposed to, Joey stays afloat until she is rescued by moody ex-cop Mick Stranahan, a loner who has also struck out in the marriage department. Then the two together, with the unwitting aid of a suspicious cop who can't pin the attempted murder on Chaz, hatch a sadistic plot to scare that "maggot" out of what little wit he has. Even Tool, a hulking brute sent by the tycoon to keep an eye on Chaz, eventually turns against him, and much of the fun is in watching the deplorable Chaz flounder further and further in the murk, both literally and figuratively (Chaz's job, as the world's unlikeliest marine biologist, involves falsifying water pollution levels for the tycoon). Hiaasen's books are so enjoyable it's always a sad moment when they end. In this case, however, sadness is mixed with puzzlement because the book seems to end in mid-scene, with Chaz in trouble again—but is it terminal? We thought at first there were some pages missing, but Knopf says that was the ending Hiaasen intended. Odd. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
Let me start with a confession: This is the first Carl Hiaasen novel that I've read, and so longtime admirers of his work should kindly forgive any oversights in what follows. Rest assured, though, that what does follow will be largely a rave. Normally, I would have tried to dig out one or two earlier Hiaasens before this one (Stormy Weather, Strip Tease, Skin Tight, etc.), but I was far from home and my usual resources: I started the book one evening while staying in a cottage surrounded by estuaries and reclaimed marshland. New Smyrna Beach, Fla., seemed the right place to read Carl Hiaasen, unless I were to drive four hours south on I-95 to Miami. I liked sitting in the gathering dark, a ceiling fan softly rotating overhead, surrounded by scrub oak and palmetto, with the passion fruit starting to ripen and the insects flittering and buzzing outside, as that evening sun went down.I mention all this because several characters in Hiaasen's book -- the Travis McGee-like hero, Mick Stranahan; the crazed, one-eyed swamp hermit, the Captain; and a couple of others -- have appeared in previous novels. I would like to have known more about their earlier lives, but Hiaasen makes sure that his new story works perfectly well without such knowledge. Still, I'm sure that fans will derive an extra fillip of pleasure in recognizing old friends.While on a cruise to celebrate their second wedding anniversary, Joey Perrone is pushed overboard one night by her husband, Chaz. "The impact tore off her silk skirt, blouse, panties, wristwatch and sandals, but Joey remained conscious and alert. Of course she did. She had been co-captain of her college swim team, a biographical nugget that her husband obviously had forgotten." Once Joey surfaces, she starts swimming toward the distant lights of the Florida coast, but after some hours the young woman begins to tire -- Chaz had made her drink a lot of Merlot before the "accident" -- and then . . . "She had momentarily forgotten about the sharks, when something heavy and rough-skinned butted against her left breast. Thrashing and grunting, she beat at the thing with both fists until the last of her strength was gone." Meanwhile, Chaz Perrone is telling the world how terrible he feels about Joey's disappearance -- it couldn't be suicide, could it? -- and secretly calling up his girlfriend, Ricca, and generally trying to disguise how much he is a cheat and a maggot. But cop Karl Rolvaag, in true Columbo fashion, feels that something isn't quite right here. Chaz is a marine biologist, a wetlands scientist testing for chemical pollution in the Everglades, and yet he doesn't appear to know the direction that the Gulf Stream flows, blithely allows his tropical fish to starve and even mixes his recyclables with the regular garbage. Rolvaag starts to dig into the case.Joey survives, and her rescuer is none other than Mick Stranahan, 53, former cop, lean, easygoing, six times married (five times to waitresses), living alone on an island with his Doberman, a skiff, some books and a lot of fishing equipment. Shall we just say that he is every woman's dream? Joey, we learn, is 37, blonde, tomboyish, sexy and low-maintenance. In other words, every middle-aged man's fantasy. And she's rich, too. One of the pleasures of Skinny Dip lies in waiting for these two likable people to hook up, even if there is little doubt about it happening." 'Mick, I want to pay you for your help. Plus expenses, of course, including room and board.'" 'I still can't promise I won't try to sleep with you,' he said. 'That's how I often behave when I meet someone attractive. It's only fair that you should know.'" 'I appreciate the honesty. I do.'" 'Don't worry, you'll see me coming about a mile away. I'm not real slick.'" 'No?'" 'French wine, moonlight and Neil Young, strictly acoustic.' " After Joey recuperates, she decides that Chaz could beat an attempted murder rap -- her word against his -- and so she decides to stay dead for a while. Instead of going to the police, with Mick's help she sets in motion a plan to drive her priapic scumbag of a husband crazy and to discover why he tried to kill her. Finding the answer will ultimately involve some typical South Florida types: ruthless developer Samuel Johnson Hammernut; a man-mountain named Tool; the sexy Rose, whom no man can resist; Joey's sheep-herder brother, Corbett; Ricca, the mistress-hair stylist; the dogged Karl Rolvaag and his pet pythons; a sharp-tongued, religious cancer patient named Maureen; and, not least, the Captain.Some crime novels are deadly serious, but Hiaasen belongs to the school of Elmore Leonard and Donald Westlake, preferring a breezy tone, grotesque characters, rampant wish fulfillment and action that remains essentially comic and even sentimental. Skinny Dip follows a traditional caper script, and one never really fears for any of the good guys; one simply waits to see how the baddies will receive their comeuppance. The fate of Chaz Perrone, for instance, could have been written by Evelyn Waugh. Waugh would certainly have admired Hiaasen's ironic wit:"As Red Hammernut listened to Chaz Perrone's story, he thought of the many blessings that had come his way, but also of the toil. A big farming operation like his was a challenging enterprise, relying as it did on rampant pollution and the systematic mistreatment of immigrant labor. For Red it was no small feat to keep the feds off his back while at the same time soaking taxpayers for lucrative crop subsidies and dirt-cheap loans that might not be repaid this century. He reflected upon the hundreds of thousands of dollars that he'd handed out as campaign donations; the untallied thousands more for straight-up bribes, hookers, private-yacht charters, gambling stakes and other discreet favors; and finally the countless hours of ass-kissing he'd been forced to endure with the same knuckleheaded politicians whose loyalties he'd purchased."This was no easy gig. Red Hammernut got infuriated every time he heard some pissy liberal refer to the federal farm bill as corporate welfare. The term implied contented idleness, and nobody worked harder than Red to keep the money flowing. . . . " Some readers might fault Skinny Dip for a slightly excessive zaniness -- does Joey really need to break into her house again and again? After a while it starts to feel like French farce, with the wronged wife actually hiding under the bed while her husband, suffering sexual difficulties since her "murder," tries to make it with a New Age chick named Medea. Poor Chaz. This Ken-doll sex fiend, this self-deceiving dolt, finds that everything is suddenly spinning out of control, even his handwriting: "He was alarmed to realize that his penmanship, once precise and consistent, had degenerated to the sort of sinuous, pinprick scrawl associated with UFO correspondents and future workplace snipers." Skinny Dip, like other work by Hiaasen, warns against the depredations the Everglades continues to suffer, and hopes, in part, to provoke readers' ire against venal politicians and unscrupulous businessmen. But since all right-thinking people naturally assume rampant corruption in Florida, as elsewhere, what to actually do is the problem. And so most of us will simply sit back and enjoy Skinny Dip for its caper plot and its pervasive, engaging wit:"Taking cover behind a magazine, Stranahan attempted to immerse himself in the travails of Eminem, a deep though conflicted young man. Apparently wealth, fame and unlimited sex are nice, but true spiritual happiness must come from within."Waugh would smile at that sentence too. Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
For two decades, Florida native Hiaasen has mined the seamy side of the Sunshine State. In his eleventh novel, he once again draws on his intricate knowledge of Florida’s cultural and natural landscape to weave together absurd, oddball characters (the hirsute “protector” Tool in particular) and an even more ludicrous plot. It’s entertainment galore—but, like Hiaasen’s previous novels, it comments strongly on environmental devastation and eco-justice. A few critics complain that the author doesn’t fully exploit the possibilities of his set-up—a large-scale government project to restore the Everglades. The pat ending, too, leaves something to be desired. Still, in his best form, Hiaasen provides “entertainment with an emotional punch” (Orlando Sentinel). Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From AudioFile
Heiress overboard! Joey Perrone is flipped over the railing of a cruise ship by her husband, a marine biologist who thinks she's on to the scam that would earn him a fortune to rival her inheritance. Husband Chaz is concocting falsified phosphorus tests for Red Hammernut, a politically connected prince of Everglades polluters. But Joey Perrone survives the plunge, and, aided by a typical Hiaasen swamp-land loner, fashions her revenge. When you add a world-weary old-school cop with a pair of canine-consuming pythons, Red's dogged Man Friday, and Chaz's not-as-naïve-as-you-think girlfriend--you just know you're in Hiaasen country. Actor Barry Bostwick, an exemplar of versatility, shapes and retools his voice to bring out the best--and the worst--of the author's human menagerie. M.J.B. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
*Starred Review* What do you get when you cross a sleazy marine biologist, a corrupt tycoon with a bad comb-over, and a voluptuous wife hell-bent on revenge? Another delirious romp through the swamps of South Florida from irrepressible Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen. Chaz Perrone was sure he'd seen the last of his wife when he pushed her over the balcony of the Sun Duchess cruise ship off the coast of Florida. But Joey Perrone, a former championship swimmer, survived the fall and clung to a bale of Jamaican hashish long enough to be rescued by retired cop Mick Stranahan. Joey wants to know why her husband wanted her dead (he feared she was onto his scheme of doctoring Florida Everglades water samples at the behest of ruthless agribusiness tycoon Red Hammernut). Then, with Stranahan's help, she wants to drive him crazy. No reprobate escapes the satirical eye of Hiaasen, who writes like the love child of Hunter S. Thompson and Evelyn Waugh. His trademark cast of skewed characters includes old favorites like Skink and new arrival, Tool, a hirsute, painkiller-addicted thug with a bullet lodged in a decidedly cheeky place. Like Hiaasen's nine previous novels, this one's a corker, chock-full of belly laughs and blistering truths. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Download Description
Chaz Perrone might be the only marine scientist in the world who doesn¿t know which way the Gulf Stream runs. He might also be the only one who went into biology just to make a killing, and now he¿s found a way¿doctoring water samples so that a ruthless agribusiness tycoon can continue illegally dumping fertilizer into the endangered Everglades. When Chaz suspects that his wife, Joey, has figured out his scam, he pushes her overboard from a cruise liner into the night-dark Atlantic. Unfortunately for Chaz, his wife doesn¿t die in the fall.

Clinging blindly to a bale of Jamaican pot, Joey Perrone is plucked from the ocean by former cop and current loner Mick Stranahan. Instead of rushing to the police and reporting her husband¿s crime, Joey decides to stay dead and (with Mick¿s help) screw with Chaz until he screws himself.

As Joey haunts and taunts her homicidal husband, as Chaz¿s cold-blooded cohorts in pollution grow uneasy about his ineptitude and increasingly erratic behavior, as Mick Stranahan discovers that six failed marriages and years of island solitude haven¿t killed the reckless romantic in him, we¿re taken on a hilarious, full-throttle, pure Hiaasen ride through the warped politics and mayhem of the human environment, and the human heart.


From the Hardcover edition.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Chaz Perrone might be the only marine scientist in the world who doesn￯﾿ﾽt know which way the Gulf Stream runs. He might also be the only one who went into biology just to make a killing, and now he￯﾿ﾽs found a way￯﾿ﾽdoctoring water samples so that a ruthless agribusiness tycoon can continue illegally dumping fertilizer into the endangered Everglades. When Chaz suspects that his wife, Joey, has figured out his scam, he pushes her overboard from a cruise liner into the night-dark Atlantic. Unfortunately for Chaz, his wife doesn￯﾿ﾽt die in the fall.

Clinging blindly to a bale of Jamaican pot, Joey Perrone is plucked from the ocean by former cop and current loner Mick Stranahan. Instead of rushing to the police and reporting her husband￯﾿ﾽs crime, Joey decides to stay dead and (with Mick￯﾿ﾽs help) screw with Chaz until he screws himself.

As Joey haunts and taunts her homicidal husband, as Chaz￯﾿ﾽs cold-blooded cohorts in pollution grow uneasy about his ineptitude and increasingly erratic behavior, as Mick Stranahan discovers that six failed marriages and years of island solitude haven￯﾿ﾽt killed the reckless romantic in him, we￯﾿ﾽre taken on a hilarious, full-throttle, pure Hiaasen ride through the warped politics and mayhem of the human environment, and the human heart.

SYNOPSIS

Chaz Perrone might be the only marine scientist in the world who doesn’t know which way the Gulf Stream runs. He might also be the only one who went into biology just to make a killing, and now he’s found a way–doctoring water samples so that a ruthless agribusiness tycoon can continue illegally dumping fertilizer into the endangered Everglades. When Chaz suspects that his wife, Joey, has figured out his scam, he pushes her overboard from a cruise liner into the night-dark Atlantic. Unfortunately for Chaz, his wife doesn’t die in the fall.

Clinging blindly to a bale of Jamaican pot, Joey Perrone is plucked from the ocean by former cop and current loner Mick Stranahan. Instead of rushing to the police and reporting her husband’s crime, Joey decides to stay dead and (with Mick’s help) screw with Chaz until he screws himself.

As Joey haunts and taunts her homicidal husband, as Chaz’s cold-blooded cohorts in pollution grow uneasy about his ineptitude and increasingly erratic behavior, as Mick Stranahan discovers that six failed marriages and years of island solitude haven’t killed the reckless romantic in him, we’re taken on a hilarious, full-throttle, pure Hiaasen ride through the warped politics and mayhem of the human environment, and the human heart.


From the Hardcover edition.

FROM THE CRITICS

Janet Maslin - The New York Times

At this point in his career as a comic novelist, Carl Hiaasen did not need to get any better. He has long been writing smart, fizzy Floridian escapades that amount to pure reading pleasure. But Skinny Dip, his latest, is something more: a screwball delight so full of bright, deft, beautifully honed humor that it places Mr. Hiaasen in the company of Preston Sturges, Woody Allen and S. J. Perelman.

Michael Dirda - The Washington Post

Some crime novels are deadly serious, but Hiaasen belongs to the school of Elmore Leonard and Donald Westlake, preferring a breezy tone, grotesque characters, rampant wish fulfillment and action that remains essentially comic and even sentimental. Skinny Dip follows a traditional caper script, and one never really fears for any of the good guys; one simply waits to see how the baddies will receive their comeuppance. The fate of Chaz Perrone, for instance, could have been written by Evelyn Waugh. Waugh would certainly have admired Hiaasen's ironic wit.

Publishers Weekly

Hiaasen's signature mix of hilariously over-the-top villains, lovable innocents and righteous indignation at what mankind has done to his beloved Florida wilderness is all present in riotous abundance in his latest. It begins with attractive heiress Joey Perrone being tossed overboard from a cruise ship by her larcenous husband, Chaz-not for her money, which she has had the good sense to keep well away from him, but because he fears she is onto his crooked dealings with a ruthless tycoon who is poisoning the Everglades. But instead of drowning as she's supposed to, Joey stays afloat until she is rescued by moody ex-cop Mick Stranahan, a loner who has also struck out in the marriage department. Then the two together, with the unwitting aid of a suspicious cop who can't pin the attempted murder on Chaz, hatch a sadistic plot to scare that "maggot" out of what little wit he has. Even Tool, a hulking brute sent by the tycoon to keep an eye on Chaz, eventually turns against him, and much of the fun is in watching the deplorable Chaz flounder further and further in the murk, both literally and figuratively (Chaz's job, as the world's unlikeliest marine biologist, involves falsifying water pollution levels for the tycoon). Hiaasen's books are so enjoyable it's always a sad moment when they end. In this case, however, sadness is mixed with puzzlement because the book seems to end in mid-scene, with Chaz in trouble again-but is it terminal? We thought at first there were some pages missing, but Knopf says that was the ending Hiaasen intended. Odd. 300,000 first printing; author tour. Agent, Esther Newberg. (July 16) Forecast: Until that seemingly unresolved ending, this is vintage Hiaasen, with some wonderfully likable characters as well as his signature obnoxious heavies, and the plot is a delightful mixture of farce and suspense. The pop art jacket is striking, and sales should be as strong as always. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In this tenth novel from the best-selling Hiaasen (Basket Case), Joey Perrone and her husband, Chaz, are taking a cruise to celebrate their wedding anniversary. One night, as the rain pours down, Chaz throws Joey overboard. He then proceeds to convince the authorities that he has no idea what happened to her. Unfortunately for him, Joey is rescued and begins to plot her ultimate revenge against her soon-to-be-patsy of a husband. The squirm-inducing mayhem that follows in this sometimes side-splitting novel almost makes you feel sorry for Chaz. It has rarely been this much fun to read about the act of revenge. All of the trademark characters and Florida locales are used to maximum effect. One of Hiassen's best-and that's the naked truth. Recommended for most popular fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/04.]-Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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