BAD MONKEY by Carl Hiaasen

Bad Monkey

By Carl Hiaasen

ISBN: 9780307272591

A 2013 hard cover release

From Alfred A. Knopf

Here we have a crime novel from an established writer who demonstrates a tendency to aim well-considered darts at various and sundry established elements of our society, such as Medicare. In most cases, the author’s aim appears to be true, but he’s using a scatter-gun approach. Sometimes less is more. The novel has a simple plot at its core. A scammer who has taken the federal government for millions of dollars through a fairly elegant illegal operation in south Florida hangs it up when the Feds inquire begin to close in. His method of avoiding arrest is bizarre to say the least.

Meanwhile a reasonably competent Key West detective named Andrew Yancy, now demoted to restaurant inspector, formerly of the Miami Police Department, is tasked by the local sheriff to dispose of a human arm, brought up by a fishing boat off the keys. Seems like a simple task, right? Unfortunately for various law enforcement agencies in South Florida and the Bahama Islands, Yancy thinks there’s something fishy about the arm. And in spite of the distraction of a plethora of pulchritudinous, sexually available women, throwing themselves at Yancy’s feet he soldiers on, determined to bring a murderer to justice and get back his detective’s shield.

Hiaasen is a wonderful writer. He generates a rolling thunder of forward movement and then chucks a nasty wrench into the works that sends the story off in a seemingly totally different direction. He is clever and inventive. Yes, of course there are crimes, including murders and there are many strange and sometimes wonderful characters, effectively used—mostly—by the author to illuminate his concerns about the social milieu which he observes in often minute detail. Reading this book put me off restaurant meals for at least a week.

Yes, there is a monkey. A pet Capuchin, ill-trained, ill-mannered  and possessed of the worst temper and too many anti-social “skills.” The novel is by turns sweet, acidulous, slow, nasty, dark, hilarious, and confusing. Sometimes the pacing and cleverness are enough to take your breath away. Bad Monkey is essential Hiaasen.

Sad Harvey Mapes is a winner

Watch Me Die

ny Lee Goldberg

an E-book reissue of

“The Man with the Iron-on Badge.”

also available as a paperback

This is the story of sad Harvey Mapes and how he tried to become Travis McGee, or the International Op, or even, Joe Mannix. If you want to know how well he succeeded, read the story. It’s a very funny novel. It’s a very good plot with some surprising twists I never saw coming. A couple of warnings may be in order. There is some really powerful and explicit brutality in this novel. There is some sex and some frank language. Finally, if you are a down and died-in-the-wool, living-it-to-the-end rabid crime fiction fan, you may want to skip this one, because Goldberg manages to diss just about every film and TV detective from “The Great Train Robbery, (1903) to Sherlock Holmes, to Ephram Zimbalist Jr. and just about every detective novelist from Collins to Connelly and Crais.

The author also manages to head-slap the film and TV industries and not a few publishing efforts. That it all works in service to the story and sad Harvey Mapes is testament to the skill and artistry of the creator of “Watch Me Die. Lee Goldberg certainly has the demonstrated chops to be able to produce this risible, amusing and very diverting story. Just glance at his bibliography for a taste.

Sad Harvey Mapes is a gate guard for a gated community in the Los Angeles area. He reads a lot of crime fiction and dreams of one day becoming a Travis McGee or a Tom Sellack. He’s single, lives in a depressing if exotically-named apartment and he spends a lot of time ogling women and dreaming about sex. Then he gets employed by a resident of the gated community to follow the man’s wife and find out what she may be up to. It appears to be a classic if run-of-the-mill detective novel set up doesn’t it? Guess again. Sad Harvey Mapes life is never again the same and readers may very well have to adjust their attitudes about the whole mystery and crime fiction millieu. Read the acknowledgements. I don’t get the title of the e-book, but everything else about this novel is just first rate.