Involved in a car accident with a young scam artist, a man helplessly watches his life spiral out of control in the wake of a sand-stealing company, a Hawaiian-shirt-clad NYC mafia capo, a reality show accordionist and other eccentric characters. By the best-selling author of Bad Monkey. Reprint. A national best-seller. - (Baker & Taylor)Involved in a car accident with a scam artist, a man helplessly watches his life spiral out of control following subsequent interactions with a sand-stealing company, a mafia capo, a reality show accordionist, and other eccentric characters. - (Baker & Taylor)
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A lovable con woman and a disgraced detective team up to find a redneck reality TV star in this raucous new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Squeeze Me.
“Carl Hiaasen’s irresistible Razor Girl meets his usual sky-high standards for elegance, craziness and mike-drop humor.” —The New York Times
Merry Mansfield, the eponymous Razor Girl, specializes in kidnapping for the mob. Her preferred method is rear-ending her targets and asking them for a ride. Her latest mark is Martin Trebeaux, owner of a private beach renourishment company who has delivered substandard sand to a mob hotel. But there's just one problem: Razor Girl hits the wrong guy. Instead, she ends up with Lane Coolman, talent manager for Buck Nance, the star of a reality TV show about a family of Cajun rooster farmers. Buck Nance, left to perform standup at a Key West bar without his handler, makes enough off-color jokes to incite a brawl, then flees for his life and vanishes. - (Random House, Inc.)
CARL HIAASEN was born and raised in Florida. He is the author of thirteen previous novels, including the best sellers Bad Monkey, Star Island, Nature Girl, Skinny Dip, Sick Puppy, and Lucky You, and five best-selling children’s books, Hoot, Flush, Scat, Chomp, and Skink. His most recent work of nonfiction is Dance of the Reptiles, a collection of his columns from The Miami Herald.
www.carlhiaasen.com
- (Random House, Inc.)
Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Andrew Yancy (Bad Monkey, 2013) returns in this immensely entertaining wild ride through the Florida Keys. He is still doing penance as a health inspector on roach patrol for an earlier assault with a car vacuum. But when the star of a redneck reality show called Bayou Brethren goes missing, Yancy sees a chance to win back his real cop job at the sheriff's office. Merry Mansfield, the Razor Girl, is sharp, that's for sure, and one of the coolest characters Hiaasen has ever brought to the page. She runs car-crash scams but has the proverbial heart of gold, which lands her bejeweled flip-flops in a diabolically complicated story that includes (and often skewers) phony reality shows and the fine folks who bring them to us: goofball goodfellas; sand-restoration, reef-raiding scammers; an ill-fated, mongoose-owning stinky copycat psycho; a high-profile product-liability lawyer who's dangerously addicted to the very male-enhancement potion for which he recruits litigants in his TV commercials. And, oh yes, let's not forget an environmentally invasive infestation of Gambian pouched rats, electric cars, and cruise lines, along with Sharpie pens that create a male enhancement that perhaps only this author could dream up. Or maybe it is one of the true "lurid" Florida tales he claims to have incorporated into the story? This is the ultimate beach read for anyone with a taste for Hiaasen's skewed view of a Florida slouching toward Armageddon. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.
Library Journal Reviews
Since this is Hiaasen, expect wild characters, starting with Razor Girl (aka Merry Mansfield), perpetrator of car-crash scams and linked to Andrew Yancy, who lost his detective badge after confronting his ex-lover's husband with a Dust Buster but seeks to get it back by solving a murder. With a 300,000-copy first printing and a nine-city tour.
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LJ Express Reviews
Ex-cop–turned–restaurant inspector Andrew Yancy is back in Hiaasen's (Bad Monkey) latest "only in Southern Florida" adventure. This time Yancy unofficially investigates the disappearance of the patriarch of a Duck Dynasty–type reality show after a booking at a Key West sports bar goes terribly wrong. Hiaasen does not deviate from the style that has made him famous, and fans can enjoy the usual vivid phrasing and humorous set pieces that characterize his works (Yancy's food inspection visits and a running gag about service comfort dogs both work particularly well). If there is any complaint to be made, it is that the main female character, the titular "Razor Girl," is not particularly well developed despite appearing throughout most of the novel, but the other criminals, cops, Mafia enforcers, Hollywood agents, and Key West citizens are memorable in Hiaasen's usual quirky way. While the ethical dilemmas of reality television have been more seriously explored elsewhere, it is doubtful they've been examined in such an amusing fashion. Verdict Hiaasen and Dave Barry fans will not be disappointed. [See Prepub Alert, 3/26/16.]—Julie Elliott, Indiana Univ. Lib., South Bend (c) Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
At the start of Hiaasen's breezy, enjoyable sequel to 2013's Bad Monkey, Lane Coolman, a Hollywood talent agent, is driving from Miami to Key West to keep an eye on Buck Nance, star of Bayou Brethen, a reality TV show, when his rental car is rear-ended by an attractive crash-scam artist, Merry Mansfield. Coolman ends up kidnapped, while Buck incites a riot at a Key West bar. Meanwhile, a Bayou Brethren fan, desperate to impress his TV hero, goes too far when he attacks a tourist. Aided by Merry, Andrew Yancy, a lowly health inspector looking for a way to get his job back with the sheriff's department, seizes the chance to solve a murder case in which Buck, who goes AWOL from his show, is a suspect. Add a few Gambian pouched rats, a New Jersey mobster, a businessman selling stolen sand, and reprehensible neighbors to the fast-paced plot, and readers will be hoping that Yancy and the other quirky denizens of Hiassen's Florida will soon be back for another screwball adventure. Author tour. 300,000 first printing. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM. (Sept.)
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