Rating: 
Summary: if you like elmore leonard...
Review: If you like Elmore Leonard, give this book a try. I read it on an airplane and found it quite enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: Hiaasen's Best.
Review: In this novel, a group of radicals called the Nights of December are picking off the tourists of Florida. Their plan: return it to its natural state.... give it back to the Seminole Indians and the animals who lived there before the tourist boom. Journalist Skip Wiley, the mastermind of this cell, is a charasmatic and oddly likeable character, even if he is the "bad guy" you find yourself on some level wishing him luck! Wonderful story. Simply wonderful
Rating:
Summary: A comic bullseye
Review: In this rollicking black comedy, a reporter fed up with the despoliation of Florida by development and tourism becomes the leader of a radical cell whose goal is to rid Florida of its tormentors through a campaign of terror. It may not sound like the stuff of comedy but it is, despite some very graphic violence - at least for those who share Hiaasen's views on the environment and the absurdity of much of American culture.
Rating:
Summary: A hilarious story of what happens to tourists in Florida
Review: It is "open season" on tourists in Florida, the land not fit for human habitation. Find out how the native Floridians really feel about the hoards of Northerners who have soiled their paradise. Carl Hiaasen's characters are colorful and eccentric, yet their message that we are destroying our native habitat is a serious one. His story reminds me of Joni Mitchell's song, "They've paved paradise and put up a parking lot."
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Summary: Be very quiet....we're hunting tourists....
Review: Las Noches de Diciembre, the Knights of December, have begun hunting season in Florida. Hunting tourists that is... As usual, Hiaasen sets his story against the back drop of a newsroom. Many of the central characters in the novel have ties to the newspaper, where Hiaasen's personal experience as a columnist shines through.This is a witty and entertaining adventure. Hiaasen has assembled a wide variety of characters to breathe remarkable diversity into his novel, including a Seminole Indian, a misfit Cuban bomber, a former NFL running back, a upcoming columnist desperately trying to become a bonafide newsroom character and the Orange Bowl Queen... Many of Hiaasen's familiar themes appear in 'Tourist Season'. We get a look at the perversion of the news and the politics of the daily newspaper. Hiaasen also takes jabs at the tourist industry in Florida and the effect on the environment. Its all cleverly disguised with a sheen of humor, usually in rants from the various members of Las Noches. Hiaasen fans will love this novel. Those unfamiliar with his work would do well to start with this novel. Its an entertaining read that keeps you laughing and turning pages.
Rating:
Summary: He's a danger for readers
Review: Oh, boy, Carl Hiasen is really dangerous for us unsuspecting readers; he's so funny, we're, if nok prepared, about to have the most happy time of our life (that is, our reading life, right?). The books get's better and better, and alle he do is getting more witty, bizarre, funnyyy .. i have never laughed so much i my (reading) life. Be prepared. You might surpise everybody bursting into highpitched laughter in the middle of reading he's books. But, by god, you desererve to do it (read hos book's, that is!)
Rating:
Summary: Silly with a Message
Review: One of Carl Hiaasen's most popular novels takes silliness to a new level - it's silly with a message. The message is the plowing under of natural, swampy Floria into a land of look-alike strip malls and condo development. The silliness involves some overdrawn characters and dumb rather than clever situations, such as the police continuing to doubt that a terrorist group is at work even after several murders. Hiaasen takes this plot point one more step too far by having the police accuse one of their own of faking the terrorist attacks, which becomes just, well, silly. Overall, however, this is amusingly fun fare (although there are some innocents murdered) and Hiaasen makes his point while providing giggles.
Rating: 
Summary: An obvious first attempt...
Review: Perhaps I did somewhat of a disservice to myself. I began my love of Hiaasen with "Stormy Weather." Then I went to "Sick Puppy." Then I went back to "Lucky You." Next, I went to "Native Tongue." I still haven't read "Strip Tease," largely because I am somewhat put off by it from the travesty that was the movie with Demi Moore and Burt Reynolds. I put off, and put off, buying the first two works of "Tourist Season" and "Double Whammy." I can't quite explain it, but something just wouldn't motivate me to get them. Then, I realized that I love Hiaasen's work far too much, and just broke down. Well, my reluctance was *somewhat* justified. This first book is a rather dull (by Hiaasen standards) tale. The characters are nowhere near as endearing as his later ones....especially those that we get introduced to in "Double Whammy" (i.e., Skink and Jim Tile)...and who later become downright loveable (i.e., "Stormy Weather," "Sick Puppy," etc.). I'm reading "Double Whammy" now, and find it to be much, much better than this...but still a hair shy of the greatness Hiaasen later acheives. Furthermore, I found that this book just kind of ended....and that was it. No real climax, nothing approaching the level that Hiaasen reached in his later works. Ok, perhaps this is understandable since it was his first outing. It's just, having read his incredible works first, I was let down by this one and didn't find to be anywhere near the "amazing" story that many allege (or review) it to be. In addition, it somewhat dated by today's standards, and I found that I had to slip into somewhat of a nostaliga-esque mindset to appreciate the beauty of a woman coming home from her jazzer-cise classes, wearing leg warmers and turning on her brand new Sony Trinitron television. Hopefully you catch my drift somewhat, but if not, just appreciate that this book was written circa 1985-1986, and it reflects it. Get in your best "Dallas" or "Knotts Landing" (or, ok, even "Miami Vice") mindset, and you'll be fine. All in all, not altogether bad. Just glad I became such an avid fan of Hiaasen by working backwards. Had I read this one first, I don't know if I would have continued to make the effort.
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read Hiassen
Review: Put this book, "Skin Tight", and "Double Whammy" on your must-read Hiassen list. These are great books: great characters, great locales, and great stories. I could almost recommend that you stay away from everything after these books, unless you're a real hard-core Hiassen fan.
Rating:
Summary: More an amusing satire than a crime mystery
Review: Set in Miami, this satiric novel of eco-terrorism concerns a newspaper reporter turned private eye who is pitted against a former colleague turned leader of a terrorist cell. Skip Wiley, the crazed ringleader, wants to return Florida to the Seminoles and everglades by driving tourists out through terror. It's lightweight, of course, but it's certainly amusing, has colorful characters and, with its sharp satire of everything from tourism to race relations to the newsroom, makes high entertainment out of mayhem. Hiaasen is very good at keeping the reader guessing, giving background on minor characters doomed to become crocodile food and others who merely fade away, so that it's hard to tell which of the main characters will make it alive to the end. The book is marred slightly by a few gaps of credibility, even for a farce (for example, the police center on one date only for a possible attack, not considering an equally possible date even after the first passes uneventfully). In all, though, it's a fine, funny thriller, with a satisfyingly ambiguous ending.
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