Rating: 
Summary: VERY VERY LAUGH OUT LOUD FUNNY
Review: LAURENCE SHAMES JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER. GREAT NEW CHARACTERS. PINEAPPLE AND HIS BUDDY AND THERE "HOME" ARE JUST HILARIOUS. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND READ IT THIS SUMMER.
Rating: 
Summary: Ranks right up there with the best in the genre.
Review: Not one of Shame's best, but the shenanigans of the Ruski Mafiosos in Key West intermingled with a nice little love story with a few whackoes in the guise of Fred and Pineapple, the introduction of Sam Katz and the return of the elderly Bert the shirt with his constipated chihuahua makes a breezy read, which is the way it should be. Laurence Shames ranks with the best of the Florida Mystery Genre writers. And like them he has a voice of his own, writing excellent descriptions and dialogue. It's a form, it's an art. It is a difficult genre to do well, and Mangrove Breeze is well written. Often people poo-poo such writers, but in truth The Florida Mystery Genre can scale the heights of good writing, often bettering so-called modern literature. I suggest the reviewer "A shopper, February 7, 1999", who gave Shames 1 out of 5 stars for Mangrove Squeeze, go and do some homework, despite telling us that "I teach writing for a living --literature, we call it. ..." I don't believe "A shopper" knows what literature is. A note here to the publishers and cover designers: The paperback cover of Mangrove Squeeze is fabulous. It gives you a laugh and makes you want to buy the book. The same cannot be said of the hardcover however, which is often the case.
Rating: 
Summary: Moderately Enjoyable
Review: Shames once again puts together a passable-but hardly noteworthy-South Florida thriller in the vein of Carl Hiassen, Elmore Leonard, et al. This time he trots in the tired specter of Russian mafia types running tawdry tourist t-shirt shops as a money laundering operation for the big bucks they make as brokers for ex-Soviet art and weaponry. Against these cardboard villains are arrayed an ex-Wall Street type who left it all to forget about his divorce, take care of his father, and renovate an old hotel; a Jersey transplant called Suki who's stuck in a dead-end job, two creaky old men, and two nice semi-homeless guys. Through it all there's a kind of stumbling, bumbling good naturedness-which serves to heighten the nastiness of the Russians. The outcome is hardly surprising, but it passes the time and is slightly more successful than two other of his books I've read, The Naked Detective and Scavenger Reef,
Rating:
Summary: Mangrove Squeeze, the best of Shames
Review: This is the best of the Laurence Shames books. It is set in Key West as all of his books have been.The twists and turns of this book are cleverly penned and leaves the reader breathless. Shames is also a master at simile throughout his books and this is no different. The beauty of his language just gets better, "gnarly knots of mangrove roots."
If you haven't noticed, I really liked this book.
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