Razor Girl
The hilarious sequel to Bad Monkey, now a major Apple TV+ series
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4.3 • 30 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
*SHORLISTED FOR THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE 2017*
A book of the month in The Times
A thriller of the week in the Mail on Sunday
One of the Guardian Readers' Books of the Year
Key West is a small place, but there are criminal secrets buried everywhere . . .
When jumped-up reality TV star Buck Nance aggravates the crowd in a Key West bar, he incites a riot and vanishes in the melee. His hapless agent Lane Coolman should have been by Buck's side, but has been accidentally taken hostage by two petty criminals who now think they can turn a quick profit by ransoming an LA talent agent.
As the search for Buck continues, the mystery draws in a broad cast of characters from across the island including Andrew Yancy, the disgraced cop who now works restaurants on roach patrol; a delusional fan of Buck's show; the local sheriff who's desperate for re-election; a shady lawyer and his gold-digging fiancée; the gay mayor and his restauranteur partner; a Mafioso hotelier; and a redheaded con artist named Merry who, using a razor blade and a high-speed car, has developed a signature way of luring in her victims.
Outrageously funny, fast-paced and uniquely addictive, Razor Girl will keep you utterly gripped until the final page.
Praise for Razor Girl
'if you are unlucky enough not to have read Carl Hiaasen, delay no longer'
Evening Standard
'a joy from first page to last'
Daily Mail
'absorbing'
The Herald
'hugely entertaining'
Crime Scene
'razor-sharp'
Irish Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of Hiaasen's breezy, enjoyable sequel to 2013's Bad Monkey, Lane Coolman, a Hollywood talent agent, is driving from Miami to Key West to keep an eye on Buck Nance, star of Bayou Brethen, a reality TV show, when his rental car is rear-ended by an attractive crash-scam artist, Merry Mansfield. Coolman ends up kidnapped, while Buck incites a riot at a Key West bar. Meanwhile, a Bayou Brethren fan, desperate to impress his TV hero, goes too far when he attacks a tourist. Aided by Merry, Andrew Yancy, a lowly health inspector looking for a way to get his job back with the sheriff's department, seizes the chance to solve a murder case in which Buck, who goes AWOL from his show, is a suspect. Add a few Gambian pouched rats, a New Jersey mobster, a businessman selling stolen sand, and reprehensible neighbors to the fast-paced plot, and readers will be hoping that Yancy and the other quirky denizens of Hiassen's Florida will soon be back for another screwball adventure. Author tour. 300,000 first printing.
Customer Reviews
Excellent
Thoroughly enjoyable read.
Sharp
4.5 stars
Author
American journalist and long time Florida resident.. Before striking out on his own in the 1980s, he co-wrote three thrillers with fellow journalist William Montalbano. This is the 18th stand alone adult novel. He's also produced several YA novels and a hilarious non-fiction book about golf. In the 20+ years since I first became acquainted with Mr Hiaasen's work, he has entertained me consistently with his satires about the Sunshine State (Florida not Queensland) and its many quirky, larger-than-life entrepreneurs, grifters, and ne’er-do-wells. (We have a few of those in Queensland too.) Most of the author’s inspiration comes from actual news reports in the local Florida press, some he wrote himself and many others he has read over the years. Starting with characters you could not make up, Hiaasen then adds a whole lot more of his own, the result being a mix of slapstick and farce. The themes of his first first three books, 'Tourist Season', 'Double Whammy' (1987), and 'Skintight' (1989) comprised bizarre nature parks, competitive bass fishing, and plastic surgery disasters. There were laugh-out-loud moments on virtually every page. 'Striptease' (1993) was made into a movie featuring Burt Reynolds and Demi Moore. Hiaasen seemed to lose a little of his mojo for a while, at least to my way of thinking, but it's back in 'Razor Girl.'
Summary
Lane Coolman is a LA-based talent agent in the middle of a messy divorce from a nymphomaniac wife who is sleeping with Lane’s boss, among others. Our boy comes to Florida with Buck Nance, an accordion player from Wisconsin re-birthed by the agency as reality TV star: an outrageous redneck bayou chicken farmer with an equally uncouth family created to compete with 'Duck Dynasty,' and shamelessly named the 'Bayou Brethren.' While driving from Miami to Key West, where he is to meet Buck for a promotional tour, Lane gets rear-ended by Merry Mansfield, an attractive young woman who makes her money from car crash scams. Modus operandi: she targets solo male drivers. When they get out to see who hit them, they find her in the driver’s seat with her skirt up and her pants down. Her excuse for the accident: shaving her pubes. With her victim’s brains turned instantly to mush, metaphorically speaking, Merry has no trouble scabbing a lift and delivering them into the hands of a brutal accomplice. Meanwhile, Buck has become a pariah after making racist, homophobic remarks, unaware of how may gay black men live in Key West. Other characters include an disgraced detective demoted to health inspector and fiercely determined to prevent development of the block of land adjacent to his, a scammer who pumps sand onto resort beaches for a fee, a New York City mafioso and his philandering GF, and a Miami product liability lawyer with an addiction to an erectile dysfunction product against which he’s conducting a class action. The list goes on.
Bottom line
'Double Whammy’ and 'Skintight' remain my all-time favourite Hiaasen titles, but this is right up there. A gem.
Note
Mr Hiassen is a also minor pop cultural icon. For instance, he co-rote several songs with the late Warren Zevon of 'Werewolves of London' fame, although Hiaasen did not contribute to that one. Jimmy Buffett wrote a song about on the the characters in his first novel, 'Tourist Season’ (1986).