Sick Puppy

I have a weakness for Carl Hiaasen. Mostly it’s because of Skink. I love that guy. But it’s also because of his brief, but I believe intense, friendship with Warren Zevon. Every time I read a book I look for little glimpses and glimmers of Zevon’s mad genius. By now I’ve read most of the books so I know how it will go. In Florida, two people are thrown together and fall in love or connect because of the evil, underhanded and decidedly un-environmentally sound practices of some corrupt politicians/businessmen. Some pristine parcel of property will be threatened with an insipid golf resort or other mindlessly pointless attraction for the rich and idiotic. There will be mild violence, sex and language. Twisted henchmen pursue, show more threaten and assault the pair in the name of their handlers, the eco-criminals/politicians. There will be quirky hangups and/or handicaps on the parts of the heros and the villains - in short, freaks abound (remember Chemo?! Yeah, that’s about the size of it.) There will be weird coincidences and comeuppances. People will die in fiendishly appropriate ways. If we’re lucky, Skink will be our fist of justice and maybe he’ll find a new glass eye and some tasty roadkill. All with an excellent rock and roll soundtrack.

These are my fall-back, feel-good books that are funny and surprise me in subtle ways. I like the language and what Hiaasen continues to try to do - to show how corrupt and insane the people who govern Florida are. How they’ve destroyed a unique ecosystem and how the state is filled with the lowest of the low. But he manages to avoid being completely bleak and, like Skink, he can’t seem to leave, no matter how bad it gets. show less

In return for helping with their computer problems, my favorite bookshop lends me Advanced Reading Copies when they get them. So I get first crack at the newest from my favorite authors. This is why I got to read Hiaasen's latest so early. Sick Puppy is pure Hiaasen. It's hilarious with a wonderful moral edge. He swears that there are people like his characters and he has met them. They make for wonderful reading but would sure discourage me from visiting Florida! The downside of getting an early crack at the new books, is it feels like I have to wait forever for the next one from my favorites!!

Carl Hiaasen is a master of sentence, character and humor of the absurd.

Case in point, this little bit taken from Sick Puppy:

"The killer had a vain streak when it came to his physique. He was driven to take measures that artificially streamlined his midsection, which in recent years had shown signs of incipient tubbiness--an unnerving development that Mr. Gash bitterly blamed on the dull sedentary life of a a hit man. It was an occupation that neither required nor allowed much physical exercise; plane trips, car rides, endless stakeouts in motel rooms and bars. For Mr. Gash, already self-conscious about his short stature, the sight of a marbled, thickening belly was intolerable. A discreetly tailored corset seemed a good temporary show more solution, at least until he found time to join a spa."

Mr. Hiassen is the P.G. Wodehouse of the modern Floridian landscape. show less

This is the first - and so far only - Carl Hiaasen book I've ever read. it was a fairly entertaining read, I liked all the quirks he put in here. Yes, there's a overall story, but the sweet thing about this book were the details. You have all these characters with quarks, like the fat senator who would rather take pictures of himself while he's intimate with his wife and is a neat freak in a weird way, or the thug who wears girdles made of reptile skin. Goodness gracious. There's also a lot of moments where I would smile to myself as I read a rather amusing part in this environmentalist vs greedy rich/political men tale. If the rest of this author's books are similar to this, then I'd love to read more.

Sick Puppy is written by Carl Hiaasen.
Sick Puppy was published in 2000 and was an instant Carl Hiaasen masterpiece. I read the book then and I wanted to reread it in 2025. I needed some laughter and Sick Puppy delivered!
[I am rereading all of Carl Hiaasen’s books to prepare myself for his new publication, Fever Beach, to be published in May 2025.]
I was instantly plunged into the depths of Florida at its most ‘Floridian’ - tourist mecca, sun-soaked bastion of ultra-right extremism, wanton greed, power and corruption, plus total destruction of its fragile environment.
When Palmer Stoat (well-known Florida lobbyist and fixer) notices the black pick up truck following him on the highway, he fears his precious Range Rover is about to be show more carjacked. But Twilly Spree, the man tailing Stoat, has vengeance, not sport utility vehicles on his mind.
Idealistic and pathologically short-tempered, Twilly has dedicated himself to saving Florida’s wilderness from runaway destruction. After watching Stoat blithely dump a trail of fast-food litter out the window, Twilly decides to teach him a lesson.
What follows is pure Hiaasen mayhem.
Dognapping eco-terrorists, bogus big-game hunters, a Republican only hooker, an infamous ex-governor who’s gone back to nature, singing toads, iguana skins and cured rattlesnake hides, Barbie doll fetishes - the list goes on!
Each and every one of Hiaasen’s books is an engaging, mind-blowing, fall off your seat in uncontrollable laughter, reads.
Highly recommended with my utmost thanks for the laughter and satire. ***** show less

Carl Hiaasen certainly does create Mayhem, with a capital "m". In Sick Puppy, first published at the end of the last century, he touches off barely contained chaos that skips up and down both Florida coasts, from the Keys to Fort Lauderdale, to Gainesville, to Tallahassee, to…ah...Toad Island. Only three murders, and they are largely incidental. Two accidental deaths, surely Darwinian. Lots of characters: some whacky, some creepy, some loathsome, some clueless, but only a few genuinely lethal.

The main characters:

Palmer Stoat: Greedy, loathsome, totally amoral, largely clueless, a top-flight lobbyist with $$$ clients
Desirata Stoat: Young, attractive, wanna-be…maybe…free of her husband
Twilly Spree: Free-spirited, independently show more wealthy, good-guy eco-terroist
Boodle, a.k.a. McGuinn: Your typical black Lab
Robert Clapley: Former drug runner and dealer; current real estate developer (and lifelong Barbie fetishist)
Darian Lee Gash a.k.a. Mr. Gash: Clapley's hit man, a carry-over from his drug-dealing days
Dick Artemus: Salesman turned Toyota mega-dealer turned governor
Lisa June Peterson: The governor's very young, very smart, quite attractive administrative assistant
Clinton Tyree a.k.a. Skink: War hero, populist, former governor, resigned and disappeared…almost
Lt. Jim Tile: Veteran state trooper, Tyree's security chief, still tenuously in touch his old boss
Doyle Tyree: War hero, war victim, brother of the former governor
Kayla Gudonov and Tish Karpinski: Sex-bombs being surgically transformed into Clapley's Barbie Twins
Karl Krimmler: On-site project supervisor directing the bulldozing of Toad Island
Dr. Steven Brinkman: Biologist doing pre-development environmental inventory on Toad Island for Clapley
Willie Vasquez-Washington: Multi-racial state senator from Miami…a wrench in the works

To launch the plot: Clapley wants to transform sparsely populated Toad Island into Shearwater Resort. But he needs the state to rip out the existing but rickety one-lane wooden bridge and replace it with a modern multi-lane span. How to get the $28 million project approved? Pay Palmer Stoat, lobbyist extraordinaire, to pull some strings. But Stoat's littering ways have attracted the ire of Twilly Spree, who dumps a load of garbage into Mrs. Stoat's BMW convertible, funnels swarms of dung beetles into Stoat's Range Rover, invades Stoat's home and carefully arranges, on Stoat's desk, the glass eyes he plucks from trophy heads lining the walls. Ultimately, he kidnaps the Lab, and also, kinda sorta, Desie Stoat. His price for backing off: unfund the bridge project, which will end Clapley's awful development.

And that's just the beginning! It's mayhem all the way. Tremendously entertaining. show less

Twilly Spree is a trust-fund baby and eco-terrorist with some anger-management issues. When he witnesses blatant littering by the driver of a Range Rover with vanity plates, he is compelled to teach the litterbug a lesson. Within a few pages the reader is immersed in the usual Hiaasen scenario featuring a dog-napping and peopled with corrupt Florida politicians and ruthless developers; among the characters here are a former Toyota salesman who is now governor, a hunt-trophy-happy lobbyist, a millionaire developer with a fetish for Barbie dolls (yes, the actual dolls), and our favorite “out-there” one-eyed hero, Skink.

It’s typical Hiaasen, with outlandish plot developments and tender young women whose good sense far outshines the show more idiots they work for (or are married to). Hiaasen has a gift for colorful description, for example: Willie Vasquez-Washington eyed Stoat as if he were a worm on a Triscuit. Of course all the bad guys will get their just desserts in the end – and in colorful, inventive ways. The action is non-stop and the pages turn fast. A fun, enjoyable diversion! show less