Skin Tight
Ratings12
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings12
Average rating3.8
Somebody wants Mick Stranahan dead. Mick is sure of this, because he just had to dispatch a pistol-packing intruder with the help of a stuffed marlin head. But who would want to hurt a former Florida state investigator? The answer is plenty of people as Stranahan soon finds himself acquainted with a litter of nefarious players, including a hit man whose skin problems could fill a comprehensive (if bizarre) medical textbook, a lawyer of questionable repute who advertises on billboards, and a TV show host whose taste for sensationalism is exceeded only by his vanity. The whole thing gets downright harrowing for the ex-cop in one of Hiaasen's most breathtaking, madcap romps everywhere even a plastic surgeon with extremely shaky hands waits to wring Stranahan's neck....
Series
2 primary booksMick Stranahan is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 1989 with contributions by Carl Hiaasen.
Reviews with the most likes.
Classic Hiassen. A little bit darker and more violent than a lot of his other books, but still full of that sun-baked neo-noir, dark humour, and sardonic mockery of media culture.
I used to find Hiaasen's books funny; now I just find them depressing. Was I not in the right mood this week, or am I a different person? Anyhow, this was fun in the slow-motion-wreck kind of way: you don't read it for the mystery or the narrative arc, you do so in a chewing-gum way to while away a few hours with explosions and ever-increasing body count. (I haven't watched TV in about thirty years, but it reminded me of what TV shows were like).
But the absurdity in this one was a little over the top; it wasn't clear what was deliberate farce and what was just carelessness. And the real-world aspects — half the characters are shallow, or venal, or corrupt, or all three — just reminds me too much of Puerto Rico and why I left. Even though Hiaasen plays it for yuks, it just saddens me to know there are so many people like that. The good characters, otoh, are a little too good, too decent. Which is enjoyable, I guess. We need some of that once in a while.
