Dogs Dinner (Sick Puppy - Carl Hiaasen)

Name: Pinotage

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Product:	Sick Puppy - Carl Hiaasen
Date:	13/05/01 (129 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: amusing time filler

Disadvantages: stale reworking of previous books

Carl Hiaasen has written many hilarious books. This isn't one of them. The standard ingredients are all there but the magic isn't.

Big time lobbyist Palmer Stoat habitual litter throwing from his car attracts the attention of Twilly Spree. Instead of talking to Palmer and trying to convince him of the error of his ways, Twilly uses increasingly weird methods of expressing displeasure, ranging from dumping a garbage truck's contents in Palmers convertible car to kidnapping his dog. Actually, the car was owned by Palmers wife, Desie, who soon becomes Twilly's willing accomplice. But Palmer remains oblivious that his littering is the cause of all the misfortunes that befall him.

Twilly's inherited fortune funds his attacks on polluters. Thus he pays his way with bundles of banknotes, buying a car here, bribing there, money no object. But despite Hiaasens best attempts, it's hard to empathise with him. He seems a pale substitute for Skink, mad one-eyed ex-Florida governor now living wild in the woods. And when Skink makes a late appearance things start looking up. But too late, even his fascinating character can't save this tired book. (In the epilogue, Hiaasen retires Skinks inside man, police officer Jim Tile. Does this mean that Skinks days are numbered and his intended replacement is the tedious Twilly? Say it ain't so, Carl!)

All the usual suspects are present; corrupt politicians, rapacious developers, and destruction of Florida's wildlife and forests. Of new characters I particularly liked Mr Gash, psychopathic hit-man who relaxes by listening to 'The World's Most Blood-Curdling Emergency Calls' and succeeds in making it to Volume IV.

I've read all of Hiaasen's books and laughed out loud to most of them. But this one didn't raise more than a couple of smiles. It's a tired reworked mishmash of previous themes and subjects and not up to the level of his previous b
ooks. If you've yet to read a Hiaasen, get one of his earlier ones such as Native Tongue.

This one's for diehard fans only.

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