Native Tongue, A Whimsical Mystery by Carl Hiaasen

When it come to satire, Carl Hiaasen, a tongue in cheek editorialist for the Miami Herald is a master. Likewise with his dozen or so improbable novels.

This review is about my personal favorite novel from the amusingly wacky mind of Hiaasen, so if you like your mysteries with an off the wall, absurd slant, (more loony than mystery) read on.

The central villain of Native Tongue is Francis X. Kingsbury, he, the boorish owner of a shabby second-rate nature theme park, Amazing Kingdom of Thrills Theme Park, who, with jealous eyes, aspires to be a competitor for Disney World, and consequently, has plans to further rape the environment with an ostentatious condo development and adjoining golf-course.

Our protagonist, who may be a vicarious creation of our author, is Joe Winder a former journalist, who initially goes to work as a PR/Damage Control man for the Amazing Kingdom of Thrills Park. His boss Kingsbury happens to be in a government witness protection program for ratting on John Gotti.

Our Story starts out when a pair of Blue Tongued Mango Voles, an extremely rare endangered species, are stolen from a pavilion at the theme park. The Voles one of the park's premier exhibits strongly resemble rats with a blue tongue. Shortly thereafter a series of murder and mayhem begin and our hero is inextricably drawn in to investigate.

Along the way we get to see a plethora of nutty characters, starting with every Hiaasen fan's favorite, Skink, a former Governor of Florida turned eco-terrorist/hermit. Other wacky characters include, Grandma, a 70-year-old pistol packing member of the Wildlife Rescue Corps, A girlfriend who "talks dirty" for a living, a heavy handed gun loving Sheriff's Deputy and a young woman in a raccoon costume, not to mention Dickie the Dolphin has a helluva romp in his tank with a beautiful TV reporter and Orky the Wale, who kills the Voles doctor, which is subsequently set up like a suicide.

Sound like fun? It is, so I won't spoil it for you. Read the book!

Native Tongue was Hiassen's fourth solo novel and as with the others is set in his home state of Florida. While Hiaasen's wit is undeniable, there is an underlying agenda in his books. It is obvious that Mr. Hiassen is a conservationist and is not happy with the wanton rapid, seemingly unregulated development taking place in Florida.

Hiassen's writing is amazingly simple and straight forward.
Being an editorialist this is a man that knows how to write. His preposterous stories are so interesting that the pages just wiz by. His characters are also unbelievably interesting if not outright Wacky. For Instance the six foot five, ex-Governor Skink who Hiaasen seems to reprise in most of his novels is a beloved character, sort of like F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack. For those of you who are not familiar with Skink, it's a funny story. When he was governor his liberal conservationist programs were thwarted by the legislature at every turn. Rumor had it that he just flipped out. He did get so disgusted that he walked out of the Governorship and from time to time is spotted, cavorting in the Everglades sporting a shower cap.

If you are in the mood for a light entertaining read I highly recommend Hiaasen, especially Native Tongue