Carl Hiaasen continues to be one of my go-to authors especially when I want some humor with my story. As usual this was another hilarious satirical romp through Hiaasen's Florida. In this one, he takes aim at the politics involved in the development of what once was unspoiled Florida and of course the novel was filled with the usual wacky characters that tend to fill his novels.
This one was focused on Twilly Spree, a young man who is disgusted by people who ignore the environment and want to pave over untouched land in Florida. Twilly is angered when he sees a litterbug on a Florida highway toss trash out his car window. The litterer is a lobbyist with a lot of pull in the State named Palmer Stoat. Twilly takes aim at Palmer by dumping a load of garbage on his wife, Desie's BMW convertible. He then fills Palmer's Range Rover with dung beetles and kidnaps his black lab named Boodle. He also pries out the glass eyes from Palmer's taxidermied collection of hunting trophies which came from a local illegal safari ranch. Unfortunately Boodle swallowed some of the glass eyes resulting it the titular "Sick Puppy." Palmer's wife, Desie, goes with Twilly to safeguard Boodle and ends up agreeing with Twilly's points regarding Florida. Twilly decides to rename the dog to McGuinn after the Byrds guitarist. Then Desie tells Twilly about Toad Island that is headed for development and this becomes the bane of Twilly. What can he do to stop it?
All of this leads to the involvement of the developer, Robert Clapley, who never got over his adolescent attachment to Barbie dolls; the governor, Dick Artemus; and one of the vilest characters to come out of a Hiaasen novel, Mr. Gash, Clapley's hired killer who collects recordings of 911 emergency calls involving people who get killed. And then Skink, the former governor who lives in the wild and is trying to protect the Florida environment, gets called in to try and stop Twilly. Skink has appeared in several of Hiaasen's works and is one of my favorite characters.
I enjoyed this one a lot. It had a great assortment of characters and the whole premise of the novel was a pleasure to read. I especially liked Twilly who is like a younger Skink. Hopefully, he will appear in more of Hiaasen's novels. McGuinn the dog also played a big role in the story and in the end he was really the one who was able to achieve justice against the shady politicians and developers. Unfortunately, I only have a few of Hiaasen's novels left to read but I will be looking forward to them.
This one was focused on Twilly Spree, a young man who is disgusted by people who ignore the environment and want to pave over untouched land in Florida. Twilly is angered when he sees a litterbug on a Florida highway toss trash out his car window. The litterer is a lobbyist with a lot of pull in the State named Palmer Stoat. Twilly takes aim at Palmer by dumping a load of garbage on his wife, Desie's BMW convertible. He then fills Palmer's Range Rover with dung beetles and kidnaps his black lab named Boodle. He also pries out the glass eyes from Palmer's taxidermied collection of hunting trophies which came from a local illegal safari ranch. Unfortunately Boodle swallowed some of the glass eyes resulting it the titular "Sick Puppy." Palmer's wife, Desie, goes with Twilly to safeguard Boodle and ends up agreeing with Twilly's points regarding Florida. Twilly decides to rename the dog to McGuinn after the Byrds guitarist. Then Desie tells Twilly about Toad Island that is headed for development and this becomes the bane of Twilly. What can he do to stop it?
All of this leads to the involvement of the developer, Robert Clapley, who never got over his adolescent attachment to Barbie dolls; the governor, Dick Artemus; and one of the vilest characters to come out of a Hiaasen novel, Mr. Gash, Clapley's hired killer who collects recordings of 911 emergency calls involving people who get killed. And then Skink, the former governor who lives in the wild and is trying to protect the Florida environment, gets called in to try and stop Twilly. Skink has appeared in several of Hiaasen's works and is one of my favorite characters.
I enjoyed this one a lot. It had a great assortment of characters and the whole premise of the novel was a pleasure to read. I especially liked Twilly who is like a younger Skink. Hopefully, he will appear in more of Hiaasen's novels. McGuinn the dog also played a big role in the story and in the end he was really the one who was able to achieve justice against the shady politicians and developers. Unfortunately, I only have a few of Hiaasen's novels left to read but I will be looking forward to them.
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