Snag Your Copy Double Whammy (Skink #1) Constructed By Carl Hiaasen Issued As Manuscript

to the Audiobook Narrated by: George Wilson

Surprisingly good,

Didn't know the author, just saw the book on a Daily Deal, and it contained elements of bass fishing an interest of mine.


The story ended up not being about the bass fishing itself for most parts, but simply using it as a stage for the actual story line.


I think even if you know nothing or care nothing for fishing, you can still enjoy this book,

He has some awesome characters, Each one as entertaining as the next,

The humor is excellent, The stereotypes are great. Some parts can be described as weird and gross, but it all adds to the story, The book combines pieces of Mystery, Detective, Murder, Fishing, Private Investigation, Photography, Redneck, HillBilly, Scamming, Cheating, Comedy, Religion, Racism, You really have no idea which direction it is going in next,

Although I enjoyed the narrator a lot, there were some odd sounds occasionally, Him drinking water, or swallowing/breathing loudly, Although this was noticeable, it doesn't really change my opinion about the narrator or the book,

I have never read a Hiaasen novel where the characters are not larger than life, and in a very unique way amazingly real! Mr.
Hiaasen has a way of writing novels that are not overly complex, that are peopled with characters that seem too crazy to be true, and yet he brings it all together in a very satisfying

way that usually teaches the reader something about the human condition, and our world.

Plus, he is funny!
"Double Whammy" is a fine example of these traits,
Private eye R. J. Decker has a checkered past, and seems to have a present that is just as bizarre, Some of the novel's finest writing deals with Decker's passion for photography, and how this passion shapes the way in which he views the world.
It is a gift of Hiaasen's to take you from laughter to thoughtful reflection in the same paragraph,
R. J. Decker is a likable character, surpassed only in likeability in this text by the unbelievable, yet intriguingly "real" character named Skink, There are some nice twists in this novel involving this character, which I won't reveal here, and Hiaasen uses Skink as his avenging angel in this text.
When people do bad things God's vengeance is quick, and usually comes in the form of this crazy hermit,
And all of this centers around bass fishing!
There are times that Hiaasen is too stereotypical for my taste with the "redneck" persona of southerners, but he is careful to not paint all people with the same shade, so it is easily forgiven.

Despite their medium length, Mr, Hiaasen's novels are quick reads, They are formulaic but they are also witty, well written, and only rarely disappointing, I love Miami. I love watching tv shows about Miami, being in Miami, and reading books about Miami, The imagery in this book takes me there, This book gets an automaticjust for that,

The beginning is an introduction of one white male after another and their generic names make them hard to sort out.
Then Hiaasen bravely shows the blatant racism that happens in the old boys' club of the south,

The plot is solid, There is cliffhanger after cliffhanger that kept me turning pages, Carl Hiaasen makes Florida sound like one dangerously crazy place, Thismystery revolves around the world of bass sports fishing, The protagonist, a man named Decker, is a former photographer turned private investigator who has been hired by a rich man to catch his rival, a bigname bass fisherman, cheating.
Apparently most of the bigname bass fisherman cheat in competitive fishing tournaments, and the rich guy has become obsessed with a celebrity who has his own cable TV show.


Decker, however, soon finds he's been set up, and the plot zigs, zags, and does backflips, involving Decker's ex, a televangelist trying to sell Florida real estate, a bunch of racist Florida rednecks, a crazy former governor now living as a mad hermit, a black state trooper assigned to the most racist hick backwaters of the state, a Cuban police detective who has to learn to fish, and a wouldbe assassin who spends the latter part of the book staggering around with a rotting pit bull's head clamped onto his arm.


Even Mickey Mouse got a mention, About the only thing that didn't make an appearance was alligators,

Double Whammy is both fun and wellplotted as zany as the plot twists may seem, Hiaasen actually brings it all together, weaving all these strange, loony, venal, and oddly noble characters together into a story about timeshares, bass fishing, and murder.
The fact that Hiaasen actually knows Florida and evidently did copious research on the subject of bass fishing just makes the details shine, though it's the characters and the twists that will really get your attention.


While a bit dated now the book was written in, as you can tell by all the problems that come up that would be solved nowadays by a cell phone, it was a good read.
I've read two books by Carl Hiaasen now, and he has a gift for making Florida sound like the weirdest place on Earth and then sticking an almostplausible plot into it.
I'm used to more humor and less scheming by Hiaasen than is presented here, I found this less enjoyable than many of his other novels,ofR. J. Decker, star tenant of the local trailer park and neophyte private eye is fishing for a killer, Thanks to a sportsman's scam that's anything but sportsmanlike, there's a body floating in Coon Bog, Florida and a lot that's rotten in the murky waters of bigstakes, largemouth bass tournaments.
Here Decker will team up with a halfblind, halfmad hermit with an appetite for road kill dare to kiss his exwife while she's in bed with her new husband and face deadly TV evangelists, dangerously seductive women, and a pistoltoting redneck with a pit bull on his arm.
And here his own life becomes part of the stakes, For while the "double whammy" is the lure, first prize is for the most ingenious murder, If I provided a synopsis of this novel thest Hiaasen novel to feature the recurring character "Skink" you'd never believe a novel with a fishing tournament sponsored by a Christian megachurch serving as its climax could be so good.


This is a very funny crime story loaded with mayhem a severed pit bull's head permanently welded to a miscreant's forearm, for instance, assorted murders and deaths by misadventure reminiscent of some of Elmore Leonard's wilder crime yarns and featuring a cast of thousands.


I loved this,
Hopefully you will too,Third reread, and it's still my favorite, In Skink we trust! :



This book was so brilliant I don't even know where to start, I don't givelightly, but this was really a masterpiece, It was hilariously funny at every turn, filled with grit and whimsy and wonderful south FLA characters, It utterly lampoons the bass fishing industry yet without impugning the beauty of the pure sport or the fish themselves,

The main character, Decker, is great, a toughguy photographer with a soft spot for his ex wife, but I feel the real star of the show was Skink the hermit, who has a mysterious past and is an unlikely crusader for a worthy cause.
I have a feeling this is a book I will enjoy reading again and again,

This is the second Hiassen book I've read, and so far I'm thoroughly impressed, I have a feeling he will fast take a seat on the dais of my favorites next to Jo Nesbo and Tom Robbins.
I would give this bookif I could, Thisnovel has all the right ingredients, and it is VERY funny, A panoply of ignorant tourists, gorgeous babes, and largemouth bass fisherman one VERY corrupt must contend with a very intelligent black State Policeman and a crusading journalist in this classic Carl Hiaasen satire.
If you're new to Hiaasen, this is a good book to start with, It's also "Skink's" first appearance in a Hiassen novel, I first read this novel back inand I loved it, Id just discovered the author whos name I can never spell correctly because of dyslexia, and Im pretty sure Id read them all out of order.
I forget why Id decided to reread them, but Im glad I have, Skink is one of the best characters Ive known for a long time, I adore him and his weird/wonderful ways,
This time I found the audiobook at my local library, The audiobook is narrated by George K, Wilson. He had me glued to my headphones from the beginning, I love his rendition of Skink,
If you havent read this series, or any of the authors novels yet, please do, Youre in for a fantastic treat,
.stars, and recommended to all, If you have read Hiaasen before, you know his mysteries are in Florida and you know that they are weird, This was his second book and I can confirm this pattern has been in place since the beginning! This book is irreverent and bizarre.
Some things make no sense while at the same time making perfect sense make sense, If you cannot suspend disbelief for a while, you are gonna get lost in the gator swamp with this one,

Everyone in a Hiaasen book is a caricature and I think that is one of the things that make them so entertaining.
With caricatures you have a lot of free reign with what you can do even if it seems ridiculous, you cannot really complain because it is kind of supposed to be ridiculous.
I was entertained by every single character good, bad, dumb, smart, goofy, straightlaced, etc, And, with the characters in this book there is no line nope, not even a fine line between law abiding and criminal anything goes!

Speaking of characters, Skink is introduced in this book.
I have only heard of him before as I have not read any other books with him, but I understand he is important in many of Hiaasens books.
As he is described in the book, I kept thinking of Hayduke from sitelinkThe Monkey Wrench Gang, He has his principles, will do anything to achieve them, and woe to anyone who gets in his way, I am definitely looking forward to more books with him,

I think this book was an improvement over sitelinkTourist Season, Hiaasens first book, That makes sense as this was the beginning of his career and I am sure he was just getting into his groove, I plan to continue to work my way through his books in publication order and hope to find a few more hidden gems in the swamps and on the beaches of Florida.
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My second Carl Hiaasen book, After Stormy Weather I decided I want to delve more into the background of Captain Skink, the most interesting character in the book, so I went back to his debut in Double Whammy .
I ended up learning more about bayou fishing than I thought possible given my near total lack of interest in the sport, I hold Hiaasen responsible for tranforming this placid and frankly boring pastime into a frenzied and deadly chase I imagine the trailer for the book with a soundtrack of The Beach Boys singing Bass Fishing in the USA and a video sequence cut along the lines of the opening credits for the movie Top Secret

The bass is not picky it is hardy, prolific, and on a given day will eat just about any Godawful lure dragged in front of its maw.
as a fighter it is bullish, but tires easily as a jumper its skills are admirable, though no match for a graceful rainbow trout or tarpon as table fare it is blandly acceptable, even tasty when properly seasoned.
Its astonishing popularity comes from a modest combination of these traits, plus the simple fact that there are so many largemouth bass swimming around that just about any damn fool can catch one.


The lampooning and the sarcasm I expected are all present in here, but the laughs are often accompanied by a guilty feeling, as the issues of environment degradation and political corruption hit too close for comfort.


In structure the book is inspired by the classic down on his luck gumshoe detective who starts on an apparently easy job prove a champion fisherman is cheating about his catch only to get caught in a big conspiracy, with the dead bodies multiplying and his own life put on the line.
R J Decker makes a credible protagonist, one I am predisposed to like on account of his freelance photographer career:

For Decker, photography was more than just a hobby, it was a way of looking at the world.
He had been cursed with a short temper and a cynical outlook, so the darkroom became a soothing place, and the ceremony of making pictures a gentle therapy.


Much of the fun of the novel comes from the wacky characters and the often absurd situations they get tangled in, with Skink as the main chaos inducing element He looked like a neon yeti.
, seconded bravely by a couple of ethnic patrolmen Jim Tile and Al Garcia, The cast is completed with some dangerously volatile rednecks, TV evangelists, chiropractors, plutocrats with a fishing hobby, femme fatales and the occasional bulldog.


I enjoyed the ride, but I couldn't help noticing that the plot gets too thin and contrived towards the end, with the author more interested in scoring karma points by arranging spectacular closures and righteous revenge on the evildoers.
I felt the comedy got more important than the actual story, But it's OK, because Skink is a fun guy to follow around, as long as you don't get to sample his roadkill cuisine.

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