HIAASEN'S PECULIAR GENIUS LIES IN HIS GRASP OF THE DELICATE BALANCE, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS TIMING, THAT COMEDY DEMANDS. Only a laugh miser could resist the manifold charms of his romp through the Rabelaisian excess of America's most hilariously corrupt paradise.

Beware! Hone9 Santana is off her meds, reacting rapidly to the bad behavior of others. This time, the annoyer is a telemarketer from Texas. Honey's revenge? She invites Boyd Shreave on a paid eco-tour of" the Everglades, where a blue-eyed Seminole named Sammy Tigertail strums an electric guitar on a woe-begotten clump of shells, mangroves,and beer cans called Dismal Key. Soon Boyd and vengeance-crazed Honey are joined by a private eye with a red-hot video camera and a college girl who just wants to have fun. And with a brawling cast of lunatic men, desperate women, a skate-boarding teen, and even a restless ghost all going native, who will protect the Everglades from the wild humans?