I tend to read about one Hiaasen novel a year. On the one hand, he’s
wickedly funny; on the other hand, he’s wickedly funny, and tends
to exceed the level of sex’n’drugs’n’sleaze I’m comfortable with. And
then, he tends to harp on the subject of over-development and related
government corruption in Florida–a serious problem, no doubt, but one
I’m not especially interested in. So I find that about one a year suits
me fine.

And then in January’s Ex
Libris Craig Clarke reviewed Basket Case. I won’t
describe it; click on the link to read Craig’s review. But it sounded
both intriguing and different than Hiassen’s usual thing, or at least
different than the ones I’d read previously.

And in fact it was a lot of fun. It wasn’t as outrageously over-the-top
as I’ve come to expect, and consequently wasn’t as funny as usual; but
then, there was somewhat less sleaze as well. Taken all-in-all the resulting
book is a pretty good thriller, with memorable characters and a nice
little romance thrown in for good measure. Oh, and over-development only gets
a short paragraph. Who could ask for more?