Wild, highly entertaining and immensely gratifying, Fever Beach is American sociological and political satire at its finest. Carl Hiaasen has crafted a no-holds-barred, over-the-top, laugh out loud story that grips you early and propels you forward at high speeds with an insatiable thirst to see how it all unfolds.
Dale Figgo, a hapless extremist so incompetent he was kicked out of the Proud Boys, whose misguided antics – including defacing the wrong statue during his participation in the January 6th storming of the Capitol – set off a chain of absurd events. His already disastrous life collides with Viva Morales, a resourceful woman recovering from a brutal divorce who reluctantly rents a room from Dale, and Twilly Spree, a millionaire with a short fuse, difficulty letting things go, and a penchant for putting people in their place. As Viva and Twilly unravel a scheme involving dark money, corruption, shady dealmaking, and right-wing extremism, they encounter a bevy of crooked, bumbling and inept people that are out to shape the political landscape in their image. Can they pull it off? It’ll take a miracle.
Fever Beach is a character driven story, and whoa boy there are some amazing characters introduced in the pages of this novel. White supremacists who don’t know their ass from their elbow. Wealthy eccentric philanthropists with hidden agendas. A congressman who can’t stop stepping in the shit and who keeps asking daddy to clean up his messes. A rich man with an anger management problem who easily gets restless and seeks to teach others a lesson. A woman in the middle of it all who is just trying to put her life back together after her ex-husband ran off with all her money. And that’s not to mention an underage prostitute, a Jewish hitman, a corrupt local politician, child construction laborers, and a bevy of Floridian racists. It’s a dash of the good, with a smorgasbord of the bad and the ugly, with most characters not getting the results they desire but receiving the outcome they certainly deserve. Which makes for a straightforward yet twisting novel that builds anticipation to high levels before delivering a satisfying conclusion that makes the journey through the Floridian underbelly totally and completely worth it.
It’s witty and fun. A riotous ride through Florida’s uniquely bizarre culture and citizenry that takes deadly serious and polarizing issues and lampoons them in a way that elevates the Florida Man meme to an artform.
Follow Steve on Twitter or contact him via the site.
Purchase Fever Beach
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)
Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen
