Squeeze Me
The ultimate crime fiction satire for the post-Trump era
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4.8 • 28 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
'One of the world's funniest novelists'
SUNDAY TIMES
'Scabrous and unrelentingly hilarious . . . the Trump era is truly Carl Hiaasen's moment'
WASHINGTON POST
From the highly acclaimed author of Bad Monkey and Razor Girl comes this hilarious new novel of social and political intrigue, set against the glittering backdrop of Florida's gold coast.
It's the height of the Palm Beach charity ball season: for every good cause, there's a reason for the local luminaries to eat (minimally), drink (maximally), and be seen. But when prominent high-society dowager Kiki Pew suddenly vanishes during a swanky gala, and is later found dead, panic and chaos erupt.
Kiki was an ardent fan of the Winter White House resident just down the road, and a founding member of the POTUSSIES, a group of women dedicated to supporting their President - who immediately declares that Kiki was the victim of rampaging immigrant hordes. This, it turns out, is far from the truth.
The truth might just lie in the middle of the highway, where a bizarre discovery brings the First Lady's motorcade to a grinding halt. Enter Angie Armstrong, wildlife wrangler extraordinaire, who is summoned to the posh island to deal with a mysterious and impolite influx of huge, hungry pythons . . .
Carl Hiaasen can brighten even the darkest of days and Squeeze Me is pure, unadulterated Hiaasen. Irreverent, ingenious, and highly entertaining, it perfectly captures the absurdity of our times.
'A comic genius' EVENING STANDARD
'He has sky-high standards for elegance, crziness and mic-drop humor' NEW YORK TIMES
'He always adds something extra to the mix . . . jauntiness, wit and larger-than-life characters' SUNDAY EXPRESS
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of this heavy-handed satire from bestseller Hiaasen (Razor Girl), wealthy 72-year-old Kiki Pew Fitzsimmons, a member of the POTUS Pussies, "a group of Palm Beach women who proclaimed brassy loyalty to the new, crude-spoken commander-in-chief," disappears from a charity event for the local chapter of a foundation "committed to defeating Irritable Bowel Syndrome." Kiki Pew's fate isn't a mystery for long. The event manager calls in animal capture specialist Angie Armstrong after a large python with a distended belly is found in a tree on the grounds. After beheading the snake, Angie stores the carcass without checking what's inside the reptile. Crooks soon steal the dead python, from which they remove Kiki Pew's body and bury it in cement. The Secret Service becomes involved after the thieves fail to secure the python's body in the trunk of their car, and it falls into the path of a vehicle transporting the first lady. The unnamed American president, meanwhile, is a clueless idiot, enabled in his ignorance by his staff. Hiaasen doesn't put subtlety at a premium. Those looking for light distraction from current events may be amused.
Customer Reviews
Wow
This book was an absolute pleasure to read. Thank you so much Carl for writing it!
Snakes and laughter
4.5 stars
Author
American journalist and long time Florida resident. Co-wrote three thrillers before striking out on his own with quirky mystery stories that double as satires on his home state. I suspect the longer than usual interval between Mr H's last book Razor Girl (2016) and this one is due, at least in part, to the untimely death of his only brother Rob, also a journalist, who perished in the mass shooting at his paper, The Capital, in Annapolis, MD in June 2018. He might also have had difficulty coping with all the new material available to him since POTUS45 got elected.
In brief
A member of a group of wealthy, ageing, female supporters of the President (the POTUS pussies, or Potussies for short) disappears after a charity function (to raise money for irritable bowel disease) at a Palm Beach club. Meanwhile, a female former veterinarian turned wildlife ranger is out of jail after serving a 14 month sentence for allowing a poacher's arm to be removed by an alligator while he was in her custody. She now operates a private "critter removal" service and is called to the above mentioned club to relieve them of a 20-plus-foot-long Burmese python. The python appears to have eaten recently, although no one suspects at first that the lump in its belly is the aforementioned potussy. From there, we're off and running on another Hiaasen special, which features the unnamed Prez (Secret Service code name Mastodon), his Euro-ex-model spouse and a cast of criminals, ne'er-do-wells, grifters etc. Mara Lago is thinly disguised, and more appropriately named, Casa Bellicosa. An old Hiaasen favourite, the Skink, makes a guest reappearance, as do more snakes and sundry other creepy crawlies, some prize fishing lures, a malfunctioning tanning bed, hair pieces secured by Velcro, the list goes on.
Writing
Slick, well plotted if you like plots that start outlandish and get more extreme from there (who doesn't?), and laugh out loud funny.
Bottom line
Since the passing of Elmore Leonard, Mr Hiaasen has no peer. Over almost thirty years, I have read everything he has written. There is no other author of more than four novels over that period, about whom I can say the same.