Rating: 
Summary: If it's called tourist season then why can't we shoot them?
Review: "If it's called tourist season then why can't we shoot them?" This is the question that Carl Hiaasen attempts to answer. When a rogue newspaper columnist (who bears a striking resemblance to Hiaasen himself) teams up with three other misfits, including a Seminole Indian gambling mogul, an ex-Miami Dolphins football player and a Cuban terrorist, their plot to rid south Florida of all of its invaders from the North comes to fruition. By targeting the Chamber of Commerce and tourists, as well as getting the news out that tourists were being hunted down, they try for the permanent mass exodus of Florida's towns that occurs annually the Monday following Easter Sunday. Another ex-reporter turned private investigator is hired to track down this band of terrorists and return order to Miami and the Everglades. It is not long before he realizes what his true purpose is. Also adding to the cast are a bumbling reporter, the editor of the newspaper, a sultry love interest that becomes a triangle with one of the terrorists, a police investigator and a couple of Shriners. What makes Hiaasen's books so enjoyable are not only his attempts to rid South Florida of the cancer's that have affected its beautiful landscapes, but also the characters he creates to do such.Like many of Hiaasen's other novels, this book is a satire of the current problem of invasion in South Florida. However, this book does not share the same amount of comic violence that some his other works (such as Native Tongue) do. Because of that is more realistic. The ending is a little bit weak, but it does come as a bit of a surprise and is definitely symbolic of the struggle these characters are facing.
Rating:
Summary: If it's called tourist season then why can't we shoot them?
Review: "If it's called tourist season then why can't we shoot them?" This is the question that Carl Hiaasen attempts to answer. When a rogue newspaper columnist (who bears a striking resemblance to Hiaasen himself) teams up with three other misfits, including a Seminole Indian gambling mogul, an ex-Miami Dolphins football player and a Cuban terrorist, their plot to rid south Florida of all of its invaders from the North comes to fruition. By targeting the Chamber of Commerce and tourists, as well as getting the news out that tourists were being hunted down, they try for the permanent mass exodus of Florida's towns that occurs annually the Monday following Easter Sunday. Another ex-reporter turned private investigator is hired to track down this band of terrorists and return order to Miami and the Everglades. It is not long before he realizes what his true purpose is. Also adding to the cast are a bumbling reporter, the editor of the newspaper, a sultry love interest that becomes a triangle with one of the terrorists, a police investigator and a couple of Shriners. What makes Hiaasen's books so enjoyable are not only his attempts to rid South Florida of the cancer's that have affected its beautiful landscapes, but also the characters he creates to do such. Like many of Hiaasen's other novels, this book is a satire of the current problem of invasion in South Florida. However, this book does not share the same amount of comic violence that some his other works (such as Native Tongue) do. Because of that is more realistic. The ending is a little bit weak, but it does come as a bit of a surprise and is definitely symbolic of the struggle these characters are facing.
Rating: 
Summary: CA|RL IS UP TO PA|R WI|TH THIS O|NE
Review: Again, if you like Hiaasen, which I do, then you'll like this one. Tough guys who are really dopes, sleuths who are really hard luck human beings, Miami backdrop, and crookedness amid all of the Miami airs, waters and lands. Good prevails over evil and Hiaasen prevails over the average writer. If he writes another with the same backdrop about more of Miami's nagging problems -- I'll read it. How about a new one Carl? How about baby Moses who floats from Cuba to Miami and is engulfed by the antiCastro community and ultimately parts the seas with his people to the homeland. I can't wait.
Rating:
Summary: If Quentin Tarantino were a novelist, he'd be Carl Hiaasen
Review: Although labled a "mystery novel," this book is anything but a "whodunit." Throughout this warped and hilarious novel, the readers know who is doing what to whom--the only mystery is who is going to get to do it first. Brian Keyes, a deft combination of cynicism and innocence, is a journalist-turned-private investigator on the trail of a group of environmental terrorists (who include an inept Cuban bomber, a stoned ex-football player, and a mysterious Native American millionaire). While the antics of the terrorists, the politicos, the media, and the police force will keep you laughing, it is the relationship between Keyes and the charimatic leader of the terrorists (who calls himself El Fuego) that raise this book to another level. And while the reader might wince at the thought of feeding tourists to a hungry crocodile, Hiaasen skillfully manages to pull sympathy towards El Fuego. His methods are sadistic, but Machiavellian--and what he does to these tourists is no less than what we have done to what was once the unspoiled wilderness of the everglades. It is this continuous alternation of allegiances between Keyes and El Fuego that propel this story towards its unusually poignant ending. While "Tourist Season" is a satisfying read on its own, read it back to back with Hiaasen's "Native Tongue," --similar themes, but in "Native Tongue" the environmentalists take the role of protagonists, rather than antagonists.
Rating:
Summary: Hiaasen's first one of his best
Review: Carl Hiaasen established himself as a highly prolific humor/mystery writer with "Tourist Season". This first effort introduces the reader to several recurring characters that appear throughout his other novels, and I recommend that you start with this book before reading his others. Main villain Skip Wiley delights with his daring wit and unrelenting fervor against those who want to pave Florida at nature's expense. A must-read, in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Hiaasen's first one of his best
Review: Carl Hiaasen established himself as a highly prolific humor/mystery writer with "Tourist Season". This first effort introduces the reader to several recurring characters that appear throughout his other novels, and I recommend that you start with this book before reading his others. Main villain Skip Wiley delights with his daring wit and unrelenting fervor against those who want to pave Florida at nature's expense. A must-read, in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Bad stuff happens to tourists in lawless south Florida
Review: Carl Hiaasen is the master of the comedic absurd, but here's the thing: if you know a bit about south Florida, where virtually all his inane and hilarious novels are set, you know it's all too possible for this stuff to really happen. I suspect he gets inspiration for the outrageous details in his books from the daily newspaper.
This one starts with a tourist Shriner who disappears while taking a little dip in the quiet ocean. Then a legless city official is found dead, stuffed in a suitcase with a rubber alligator stuck down his throat. More stiffs turn up, and there's a weird (no surprise to Hiaasen's regular readers) theme connecting them.
A fun and funny read, and it heralded the many others that followed this debut of sorts.
Rating:
Summary: tourist season
Review: Great book. I will read more of his books. He lives down the stree form me. he never takes his trash cans in.
Rating:
Summary: very funny, my kind of oddball humour
Review: Having found this book under the seat of my car after lending it to a friend for 2 years, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Not knowing if it was supposed to be funny or not caught me off guard when I found myself laughing at loud at one of the early "terrorist" victims having been choked to death on a toy rubber alligator. I was hooked! There is a wide range of characters in this story, none of whom go unexplained, and all have seemingly justifiable causes to support. The "terrorists" are a diverse group of whackos led by newspaper reporter and ecologist Skip Wiley. He is truly the craziest of the bunch, but there was a part of me that towards the end sympathized with his cause. PI Brian Keyes is a great character that I hope will turn up in his subsequent books, which I plan to obtain as soon as I can get ahold of them. A great read.
Rating:
Summary: it aint shakespeare
Review: hey look, this isnt shakespeare or dickens... it's hiassen! you read it on the beach in florida or whereever. its not meant to be this mind altering literature. its fun and easy! i read it after i finished the biography of john adams when i needed a break. carl hiassen, elmore leonard, dave barry, etc., are all south florida guys, they write like that! fun and relaxed... get it!
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