Carl Hiaasen created zany Florida novels about the environment, corruption, casual murder and destruction all laced with quickfire humour.  He created a genre. Tim Dorsey cashed in. This book is a mini-homage by including Hiaasen in the narrative.

So how did he do?

If you like slap-stick humour where the principal feature is brutal, sadistic murder plus massive drug-taking and crime as a lifestyle choice this is for you. Before you get too sanctimonious – saying to yourself that you are above all that sort of thing – think of it as a cartoon. Over the New Year I saw a few Tom and Jerry cartoons with my grandson and they were a Dorsey novel. Zany, sadism, casual violence and humour all wrapped up in a wonderful package. Timeless cartoons which ran from 1940 to 1958 with other versions since then – all of them very popular.

I love Hiaasen and this isn’t as good BUT it relieves the diet of police procedurals. I’ll be reading more – there are many more – until I reach a point when I dislike them.