Carl Hiaasen’s Bad Monkey reminded me a lot of Dave Barry’s books — lots of crazy shit going down, kooky people, weird coincidences, and of course, it all takes place in Florida. I was not quite blown away with the plot of Bad Monkey, but the dialogue was extremely well-written and witty. I loved the two main characters — Yancy and Rosa — based entirely upon their conversations with each other.
“Miami … the floating-human-body-parts capital of America.”
Andrew Yancy is a disgraced Floridian police officer — I’ll let you read to find out exactly why — who’s been knocked down to roach patrol by his boss. At the beginning of the novel, his boss entrusts him with a severed arm that was found on a beach, hoping that Yancy can help him avoid a scandal. Yancy decides to solve the case, hoping to get back on the department’s good side and therefore get his badge back. The investigation involves a greedy widow, a failing beach resort in the Caribbean, and an almost-hairless monkey. Oh, and Yancy has himself a little sex in a morgue.
It’s a fun, quick read, and like I said earlier, the dialogue is great. There’s a side plot about Yancy’s neighborhood, in which a monstrosity of a house is being built. He has some…creative ways…of dealing with it, and honestly, that plot was way more fun to read than the A plot.
