Thanks again to Must Read Mysteries for letting me share my
thoughts on crime writers and characters. Again, demonstrating an authority
problem, let me immediately dwell on a writer who is usually featured in the
crime/mystery shelves of your local bookstore but is more aptly labeled as the
writer of ‘Environmental thrillers’.
Born in Plantation, Florida, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale in 1953, Carl Hiaasen stems
from Norwegian heritage. He graduated from the University of Florida
in 1974 with a degree in journalism, was hired in 1976 by the Miami Herald
where he still writes a weekly column.
Tony Hillerman once referred to Hiaasen as ‘The Mark Twain
of the crime novel.’ He has no real series character in his books, although there
are two recurring characters, Clinton ‘Skink’
Tyree, the former governor of Florida,
now a swamp rat who lives on road kill. The character is actually based on a
childhood friend of Hiaasen’s, Clyde Ingalls, who took his life as a teenager,
in part over the developmental devastation of Florida. The other recurring character is a
homicide detective named Al Garcia (Zorro anyone?) who maintains a vivid memory
of every corpse he has ever had to deal with.
He writes wearing a fishing hat and hearing protection
muffs. His books dovetail with his concerns as a journalist and native
Floridian. He once said that “Florida
has always been a magnate for outlaws, scoundrels, and a sort of predatory
element.” The Florida
of his books is populated by greedy businessmen, corrupt politicians, dumb
blondes, apathetic retirees, and intellectually challenged tourists. There’s no
end to the bad behavior on the part of characters who theoretically are
supposed to hold the public trust.
With few exceptions, his main character is never a PI.
They’re usually younger individuals who’ve been kicked around the block more
than once. They’ve all either failed at a career or just simply burned out,
wandering aimlessly, not really caring all that much. A woman in some sort of
difficulty usually raises them to the surface and provides a cause to champion
The film Striptease, based on Hiaasen’s novel
Strip Tease starred Demi Moore wearing pasties and Bert Reynolds covered
from top to bottom in Vaseline. Hiaasen insists the film represents a high
water mark in American cinematography.
Wry humor is one of his trademarks. His tales take place in a world where Florida scams and schemes seem to be par for the course. “None of my novels, I don’t think, are really whodunits. By page 90, everybody knows whodunit. The trick and the fun is trying to figure out how are they going to get out of it?”
Every one of Hiaasen’s novels are different. The characters
are always a surprise and they face a number of forks in the road along their madcap
journey. Critic’s complain that his work is the same book written over and over
again, only with different characters. It’s fair to say the plots follow a
familiar line, a beautiful part of Florida
is threatened by corporations. The fun part in every Hiaasen tale is the weirdness
and quirky behavior of his characters. If you haven’t read him, give him a try,
I think you’ll inhale each and every book.
