Andrew Yancyβlate of the Miami Police and soon-to-be-late of the Monroe County sheriffβs officeβhas a human arm in his freezer. Thereβs a logical (Hiaasenian) explanation for that, but not for how and why it parted from its shadowy owner. Yancy thinks the boating-accident/shark-luncheon explanation is full of holes, and if he can prove murder, the sheriff might rescue him from his grisly Health Inspector gig (itβs not called the roach patrol for nothing). But firstβthis being Hiaasen countryβYancy must negotiate an obstacle course of wildly unpredictable events with a crew of even more wildly unpredictable characters, including his just-ex lover, a hot-blooded fugitive from Kansas; the twitchy widow of the frozen arm; two avariciously optimistic real-estate speculators; the Bahamian voodoo witch known as the Dragon Queen, whose suitors are blinded unto death by her peculiar charms; Yancyβs new true love, a kinky coroner; and the eponymous bad monkey, who with hilarious aplomb earns his place among Carl Hiaasenβs greatest characters.
Here is Hiaasen doing what he does better than anyone else: spinning a tale at once fiercely pointed and wickedly funny in which the greedy, the corrupt, and the degraders of whatβs left of pristine Floridaβnow, of the Bahamas as wellβget their comeuppance in mordantly ingenious, diabolically entertaining fashion.
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