cover image Fever Beach

Fever Beach

Carl Hiaasen. Knopf, $30 (384p) ISBN 978-0-593-32094-5

Bestseller Hiaasen (Squeeze Me) continues to romp through Florida’s looniest corners in this hilarious send-up of white supremacists, crooked politicians, and the quirky citizens who oppose them. Dale Figgo is a down-on-his-luck neo-Nazi who has been rejected by both the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers for smearing feces on the wrong statue on January 6, but it looks like his ship may be coming in. Congressman Clure Boyette has successfully solicited $2 million from racist philanthropists Claude and Electra Mink to fund Dale’s nascent far-right organization, Strokers for Liberty, laundering the cash through a Habitat for Humanity knockoff that uses child labor. Opposing those bozos are Viva Morales, the Mink foundation’s dissatisfied “wealth director” and Dale’s reluctant tenant; independently wealthy social justice crusader Twilly Spree, who meets Viva by chance on a flight; and underage sex worker Galaxy, who has dirt on Boyette. Viva uncovers much of what’s going on by fake-dating Boyette and snooping around Dale’s house and recruits Twilly to help her topple their scheme—but Dale and his crew fail mostly through their own incompetence. This funhouse-mirror satire offers welcome opportunities to laugh at the absurdities of 21st-century politics. It’s Hiaasen at his finest. Agent: Esther Newberg, CAA. (May)