Bad Monkey, Carl Hiaasen

The release of a new novel by Carl Hiaasen is always cause for celebration.  I have to admit, I love every novel he's written.  (His golf book wasn't that great, to me.)  Bad Monkey came at a great time, shortly after I read a new novel by that other funny south Florida columnist.  (I won't name names, but he should stick to his humor columns and leave the humor novels to Hiaasen!)

Bad Monkey, Hiaasen's first adult novel since 2010's Star Island, opens with a honeymooning couple's snagging an unusual catch on their fishing trip in the Florida Keys: a human arm.  We meet Andrew Yancy, who has been demoted from detective to health inspector due to a very public mini-vac attack on his lover's husband.  Yancy, determined to resurrect his career by pursuing the killer of the owner of the wayward arm, gets himself into a convoluted mess that, in his inimitable style, Hiaasen weaves together and ultimately, improbably, sorts out.

Believe it or not, in spite of the very Hiaasen-esque cast of characters, this may be a little more straight that some of his other novels.  Nevertheless, Hiaasen fans won't be disappointed.  Mystery fans with a sense of humor will enjoy Hiaasen's convoluted plotting.  And restaurant inspectors everywhere will find a new hero in Yancy.