Bad Monkey

by Carl Hiaasen Narrated by Arte Johnson

Overview

Andrew Yancy-late of the Miami Police and soon-to-be-late of the Monroe County sheriff's office-has a human arm in his freezer. There's a logical (Hiaasenian) explanation for that, but not for how and why it parted from its shadowy owner. Yancy thinks the boating-accident/shark-luncheon explanation is full of holes, and if he can prove murder, the sheriff might rescue him from his grisly Health Inspector gig (it's not called the roach patrol for nothing). But first-this being Hiaasen country-Yancy must negotiate an obstacle course of wildly unpredictable events with a crew of even more wildly unpredictable characters, including his just-ex lover, a hot-blooded fugitive from Kansas; the twitchy widow of the frozen arm; two avariciously optimistic real-estate speculators; the Bahamian voodoo witch known as the Dragon Queen, whose suitors are blinded unto death by her peculiar charms; Yancy's new true love, a kinky coroner; and the eponymous bad monkey, who with hilarious aplomb earns his place among Carl Hiaasen's greatest characters.

Here is Hiaasen doing what he does better than anyone else: spinning a tale at once fiercely pointed and wickedly funny in which the greedy, the corrupt, and the degraders of what's left of pristine Florida-now, of the Bahamas as well-get their comeuppance in mordantly ingenious, diabolically entertaining fashion.

From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

JUNE 2013 - AudioFile

Not surprisingly, BAD MONKEY is another Carl Hiaasen murder mystery set in steamy South Florida. Arte Johnson narrates this latest—about a crazy monkey, a severed arm, murder, and bad Florida real-estate deals. Deputy Sheriff Andrew Yancy gets involved in a grisly investigation when a tourist reels in a human arm while fishing off Key West. Yancy has no way of knowing just how much trouble that arm will get him in, especially when he meets a pet monkey with a bad attitude. Johnson's snarky narrating style is perfect for Hiaasen's wild story and cast of crazies. M.S. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

The New York Times - Janet Maslin

Carl Hiaasen's latest comedic marvel…he hasn't written a novel this funny since Skinny Dip…with which his new one, Bad Monkey, shares some common ground. Both books begin with signs of lethal violence…Both involve scabby, furry creatures. And both touch lightly on Mr. Hiaasen's serious concern with toxic pollution…

The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio

Any fears that Carl Hiaasen might be mellowing are put to rest by Bad Monkey, another rollicking misadventure in the colorful annals of greed and corruption in South Florida…Hiaasen has a peculiar genius for inventing grotesque creatures—like the monstrous voodoo woman known as the Dragon Queen and Driggs, a scrofulous monkey "with a septic disposition"—that spring from the darkest impulses of the id. But he also writes great heroes like Yancy and Neville…

Publishers Weekly

Hiaasen (Star Island) combines familiar themes with an inspired cast in this exercise in Florida zaniness. Andrew Yancy, who became an ex-cop after publicly assaulting his girlfriend’s husband with a vacuum cleaner attachment, is now on “roach patrol” as a restaurant inspector, but he soon gets a chance at redemption. Sonny Summers, the new Monroe County sheriff, tells Yancy to take a severed, shark-bitten arm snagged by a fisherman to Miami, where DNA identifies the limb as belonging to Nick Stripling, a retiree in his 40s whose boat was wrecked at sea. Stripling’s grown daughter, Caitlin Cox, claims after the funeral that her hated stepmother murdered her father, and Yancy sees proving the stepmother’s guilt as a way to return to the force. Add in some real estate shenanigans, a voodoo witch, and a deranged monkey, and you have another marvelously entertaining Hiaasen adventure. Author tour. Announced first printing of 250,000. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM. (June)

From the Publisher

"[A] comedic marvel . . . [Hiaasen] hasn't written a novel this funny since Skinny Dip. . . . Beautifully constructed."—Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"[A] deliciously zany romp. Buckle up for the ride."—People

"Bad Monkey boils over with corruption and comeuppance. And yes, there's a monkey."—O, The Oprah Magazine

"[A] rollicking misadventure in the colorful annals of greed and corruption in South Florida. . . . Hiaasen has a peculiar genius for inventing grotesque creatures . . . that spring from the darkest impulses of the id. But he also writes great heroes."—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times

"This 'Triple-F'-fierce, funny, and Floridian . . . enfolds corruption, greed, mayhem, and very funny social satire in the way that only Hiaasen does it."—Reader's Digest

"[Hiaasen is] one of America's premier humorists."—Rege Behe, Pittsburg Tribune-Review

"No one writes about Florida with a more wicked sense of humor than Hiaasen."—Jocelyn McClurg, USA Today

"The gold standard for South Florida criminal farce."—Kirkus Reviews

"Inspired . . . Another marvelously entertaining Hiaasen adventure."—Publishers Weekly

"Hiaasen is laugh-out-loud funny and thoroughly entertaining."—Thomas Gaughan, Booklist (starred)

Booklist (starred) Thomas Gaughan

"Hiaasen is laugh-out-loud funny and thoroughly entertaining."

USA Today Jocelyn McClurg

"No one writes about Florida with a more wicked sense of humor than Hiaasen."

Pittsburg Tribune-Review Rege Behe

"[Hiaasen is] one of America's premier humorists."

Reader's Digest

"This 'Triple-F'-fierce, funny, and Floridian . . . enfolds corruption, greed, mayhem, and very funny social satire in the way that only Hiaasen does it."

The New York Times Marilyn Stasio

"[A] rollicking misadventure in the colorful annals of greed and corruption in South Florida. . . . Hiaasen has a peculiar genius for inventing grotesque creatures . . . that spring from the darkest impulses of the id. But he also writes great heroes."

The Oprah Magazine O

"Bad Monkey boils over with corruption and comeuppance. And yes, there's a monkey."

People

"[A] deliciously zany romp. Buckle up for the ride."

The New York Times Janet Maslin

"[A] comedic marvel . . . [Hiaasen] hasn't written a novel this funny since Skinny Dip. . . . Beautifully constructed."

JUNE 2013 - AudioFile

Not surprisingly, BAD MONKEY is another Carl Hiaasen murder mystery set in steamy South Florida. Arte Johnson narrates this latest—about a crazy monkey, a severed arm, murder, and bad Florida real-estate deals. Deputy Sheriff Andrew Yancy gets involved in a grisly investigation when a tourist reels in a human arm while fishing off Key West. Yancy has no way of knowing just how much trouble that arm will get him in, especially when he meets a pet monkey with a bad attitude. Johnson's snarky narrating style is perfect for Hiaasen's wild story and cast of crazies. M.S. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

A severed arm that a visiting angler hooks off Key West kicks off Hiaasen's 13th criminal comedy. Though he's anything but eager to follow Monroe County Sheriff Sonny Summers' bidding and drive the arm to Miami to see if it belonged to some local stiff, the encounter Andrew Yancy has with Miami Assistant Medical Examiner Rosa Campesino, which ends with him taking the arm back home and parking it in his freezer, starts to change his attitude toward the case. Unfortunately, it doesn't change the fact that he's been suspended from the Sheriff's Department and banished to the gruesome post of restaurant inspector. But once the arm is identified as that of developer Nicholas Stripling, Yancy, calling himself "Inspector Yancy," takes it on himself to question Nicky's wife, Eve, his estranged daughter, Caitlin Cox, Eve's sworn enemy, and several other concerned parties. When two of these parties are shot to death very shortly after their chats with Yancy, he knows he's onto something, even though the imperviously obtuse Sonny Summers doesn't. Leaving behind his "future former girlfriend" Bonnie Witt, who's just revealed an unexpectedly colorful personal history to him, Yancy takes Rosa along to follow the arm's trail to Lizard Cay, Bahamas, where more crazies await: a toothless voodoo priestess called the Dragon Queen, her hapless client Neville Stafford, whose troubles bear an uncanny resemblance to Yancy's own, and his companion Driggs, a monkey reputed to have worked on the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. The mind-boggling plot will require yet another Hiaasen hurricane, a house fire, several perp walks for diverse felonies and a healthy dose of cleansing violence to bring down the curtain. Not as funny as Hiaasen's best (Star Island, 2010, etc.), with a title character more vicious than amusing, but still the gold standard for South Florida criminal farce.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172192395
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	06/11/2013
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

One

On the hottest day of July, trolling in dead-calm waters near Key West, a tourist named James Mayberry reeled up a human arm. His wife flew to the bow of the boat and tossed her breakfast burritos.
 
“What’re you waiting for?” James Mayberry barked at the mate.“Get that thing off my line!”
 
The kid tugged and twisted, but the barb of the hook was imbedded in bone. Finally the captain came down from the bridge and used bent-nose pliers to free the decomposing limb, which he placed on shaved ice in a deck box.
 
James Mayberry said, “For Christ’s sake, now where are we supposed to put our fish?”
 
“We’ll figure that out when you actually catch one.”
 
It had been a tense outing aboard the Misty Momma IV. James Mayberry had blown three good strikes because he was unable to absorb instruction. Dragging baits in the ocean was different than jigging for walleyes in the lake back home.
 
“Don’t we need to call somebody?” he asked the captain.
 
“We do.”
 
The hairy left arm was bloated and sunburned to the hue of eggplant.
 
A cusp of yellowed humerus protruded at the point of separation, below the shoulder. The flesh surrounding the wound looked ragged and bloodless.
 
“Yo, check it out!” the mate said.
 
“What now?” James Mayberry asked.
 
“His freakin’ finger, dude.”
 
The victim’s hand was contracted into a first except for the middle digit, which was rigidly extended.
 
“How weird is that? He’s flippin’ us off,” the mate said.
 
The captain told him to re-bait the angler’s hook.
 
“Has this ever happened out here before?” James Mayberry said. “Tell the truth.”
 
“You should go see about your wife.”
 
“Jesus, I’ll never hear the end of it. Louisa wanted to ride the Conch Train today. She did not want to come fishing.”
 
“Well, son,” the captain said, “we’re in the memory-making business.”
 
He climbed back to the bridge, radioed the Coast Guard and gave the GPS coordinates of the gruesome find. He was asked to remain in the area and look for other pieces of the body.
 
“But I got a charter,” he said.
 
“You can stay at it,” the Coast Guard dispatcher advised. “Just keep your eyes open.”
 
After calming herself, Louisa Mayberry informed her husband that she wished to return to Key West right away.
 
“Come on, sugar. It’s a beautiful morning.” James Mayberry didn’t want to go back to the dock with no fish to hang on the spikes—not after shelling out a grand to hire the boat.
 
“The first day of our honeymoon, and this! Aren’t you sketched out?”
 
James Mayberry peeked under the lid of the fish box. “You watch CSI all the time. It’s the same type of deal.”
 
His wife grimaced but did not turn away. She remarked that the limb didn’t look real.
 
“Oh, it’s real,” said James Mayberry, somewhat defensively. “Just take a whiff.” Snagging a fake arm wouldn’t make for as good a story.
A real arm was pure gold, major high-fives from all his peeps back in Madison. You caught a what? No way, bro!
 
Louisa Mayberry’s gaze was fixed on the limb. “What could have happened?” she asked.
 
“Tiger shark,” her husband said matter-of-factly.
 
“Is that a wedding band on his hand? This is so sad.”
 
“Fish on!” the mate called. “Who’s up?”
 
James Mayberry steered his bride to the fighting chair and the mate fitted the rod into the gimbal. Although she was petite, Louisa Mayberry owned a strong upper body due to rigorous Bikram yoga classes that she took on Tuesday nights. Refusing assistance, she pumped in an eleven-pound blackfi n tuna and whooped triumphantly as it flopped on the deck. Her husband had never seen her so excited.
 
“Here, take a picture!” she cried to the mate, and handed over her iPhone.
 
“Hold on,” James Mayberry said. “Get both of us together.”
 
Louisa watched him hustle to get ready. “Really, Jimmy? Really?”
 
Moments later the captain glanced down from the bridge and saw the mate snapping photographs of the newlyweds posed side by side at the transom. Their matching neon blue Oakley wraparounds were propped on their matching cap visors, and their fair Wisconsin noses practically glowed with sunblock.
 
Louisa Mayberry was gamely hoisting by the tail her sleek silvery tuna while James Mayberry wore the mate’s crusty gloves to grip his rancid catch, its middle finger aimed upward toward the puffy white clouds.
 
The captain dragged on a cigarette and turned back to the wheel.
 
“Another fucking day in paradise,” he said.

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