Carl Hiaasen’s Latest is a Razor-Sharp Comedy Caper

Sometimes readers are in the mood for a brainy, whip-smart thriller, sometimes they simply crave a hilarious page-turner. But, more often than not, these two genres don’t intersect. Enter Carl Hiaasen, the renowned Miami Herald columnist who has written more than a dozen laugh-a-minute crime novels, including the unforgettable Bad Monkey, Lucky You, and Skinny Dip, as well as award-winning children’s books like Hoot (which became a feature film) and savvy non-fiction such as Team Rodent (an unapologetic rant about Disney).
Now Hiaasen is back with more of his signature clever comedy in new novel Razor Girl, an outrageous, rollicking read about Buck Nance, a missing redneck reality star, and troublemaker Merry Mansfield, who can’t stop shaving—and crashing—while driving (hence the title). Hiaasen is in top form in this read, brandishing like never before his unstoppable triple threat of unparalleled plot lines, people, and predicaments. Here’s why Razor Girl is so sharp.

The Plot Lines
Hiaasen doesn’t just take a single interesting character in a single high-stakes scenario and lay things out from A to Z. Instead, he presents a variety of threads that ultimately all intersect…in the ways you least expect. Like a giant Seinfeld episode, Razor Girl follows several storylines. There’s the main one: the disappearance of the star of hit reality show Bayou Brethren and the mad scramble to locate him before his family, his mistress, and all of Hollywood fall apart. But there’s also the storyline of the kidnapped talent agent, the lawsuit over an erectile dysfunction medication, a giant diamond ring hidden in a container of smoked fish dip, and a former detective-turned-cockroach cop who’s determined to solve the mystery of Buck and also get his E.R. doctor-girlfriend back from Oslo. (Just to name a few.)

The People
Hiaasen is a master of character development, cramming his wild tales full of fiction’s funniest names and faces. In Razor Girl, be prepared to meet the cast of Bayou Brethren (a loose parody of Duck Dynasty), which includes not just the missing Buck, but brothers Buddy, Clee Roy, and Junior—all once upper-class Wisconsin boys who fell into Hollywood after their accordion band was discovered and they subsequently changed their names, grew beards, and dirtied their dental work. You’ll also meet Merry, the aforementioned razor-happy redhead; Miracle, the tantrum-throwing mistress; Trebeaux, the sand-stealing, erosion-control thief; and Big Noogie Aeola, a New York mafia dude who likes his flip-flops. We’ll leave some out for the sake of surprise, but brace yourself for Blister, Brock, Krystal, Amp, and a posse of giant Gambian rats, among other eccentrics.

The Predicaments
True to Hiaasen form, Razor Girl doesn’t stop with its memorable plot and people. Its over-the-top predicaments will have you gasping for air. Like the time Buck Nance’s shaved, ZZ Top-style beard is found in a restaurant’s quinoa. Or the time Miami ex-con Zeto electrocutes himself while trying to charge his Tesla. Or the time an angry mistress crashes a website with doctored Bin Laden photos. We probably should mention the mongoose named after Buck’s brother Clee Roy that’s kept as a pet and tied to a dining room table leg, but we’ll stop short of describing the corpse found by honeymooners in Cuba. Wherever you turn in this beauty, there’s more proof that truth may not be stranger than fiction after all. Suffice it say, there are more scrapes in this must-read than Razor Girl herself can shake a disposable Bic at, making it one of Hiaasen’s best exploits yet.