{"id":1228,"date":"2013-09-29T11:29:11","date_gmt":"2013-09-29T18:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=1228"},"modified":"2013-09-29T11:29:11","modified_gmt":"2013-09-29T18:29:11","slug":"realitys-out-hilaritys-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=1228","title":{"rendered":"Reality’s out; hilarity’s in"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bob Moyer knows a delightfully crazy crime novel when he reads one, and he\u2019s just read the latest zany book by Carl Hiaasen.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Robert P. \u00a0Moyer<\/p>\n

BAD MONKEY. By Carl Hiaasen. Alfred A. Knopf. 336 pages. $26.95<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Take a severed arm, recently owned by a man suspected of massive Medicare fraud.\u00a0 Toss it into a freezer, currently owned by Andrew Yancy, demoted from Miami detective to health inspector (read: roach counter).\u00a0 Add in Yancy\u2019s ex-girlfriend, a fugitive sex offender from Arkansas, and his current girlfriend, a coroner who likes to get lively in the morgue.\u00a0Top it all off with a Bad Monkey<\/em>, who got fired from a Johnny Depp movie for flinging feces around the set.\u00a0What does it all add up to?<\/p>\n

Just another hilarious romp in the Hiaasenian universe.<\/p>\n

Carl Hiaasen consistently comes up with stories that strain the possible, let alone the probable.\u00a0His stories are just as likely to make readers roll their eyes as roll on the floor with laughter.\u00a0Nevertheless, he keeps us engaged, creating good guys with bad habits, and bad guys with no redeeming qualities.<\/p>\n

It makes perfect sense in his world that Yancy\u00a0would think he could get his job back if he finds out who murdered the guy who lost the arm, even though Yancy was caught on camera on a city street conducting a rectal procedure on his ex-girlfriend\u2019s husband \u2013 with a vacuum cleaner.<\/p>\n

A slightly tarnished knight, Yancy sets off on his quest through scenery made familiar by John D. MacDonald, a Florida damaged by corrupt developers and businessmen.\u00a0Hiaasen\u2019s outrageous premises stem from his outrage at the havoc wreaked upon the landscape, executed by venal characters all the way from the coast of Florida to the Bahamas.<\/p>\n

More than a master of character, Hiaasen also comes up with appropriate and satisfying comeuppances for his villains.\u00a0Just desserts are served up in the author\u2019s comic universe of good versus evil, and Yancy returns to his home with a view unimpeded by a\u00a0\u00a0 developer\u2019s monstrosity of a house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Moyer knows a delightfully crazy crime novel when he reads one, and he\u2019s just read the latest zany book by Carl Hiaasen. Reviewed by Robert P. \u00a0Moyer BAD MONKEY. By Carl Hiaasen. Alfred A. Knopf. 336 pages. $26.95 Take a severed arm, recently owned by a man suspected of massive Medicare fraud.\u00a0 Toss it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[495,494,496],"class_list":["post-1228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thriller-suspense","tag-bad-monkey","tag-carl-hiaasen","tag-crime-novels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1230,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions\/1230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}