CARL HIAASEN

Once a hotshot investigative reporter, Jack Tagger now bangs out obituaries for a South Florida daily, ';plotting to resurrect my newspaper career by yoking my byline to some famous stiff.' Jimmy Stoma, the infamous front man of Jimmy and the Slut Puppies, dead in a fishy-smelling scuba ';accident,' might be the...

Andrew Yancylate of the Miami Police and soon-to-be-late of the Monroe County sheriff's officehas 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...

Honey Santanaimpassioned, willful, possibly bipolar, self-proclaimed ';queen of lost causes'has a scheme to help rid the world of irresponsibility, indifference, and dinnertime sales calls. She's taking rude, gullible Relentless, Inc., telemarketer Boyd Shreave and his less-than-enthusiastic mistress, Eugeniethe...

When a ferocious hurricane rips through southern Florida, the con artists and carpetbaggers waste no time in swarming over the disaster area.Among the predators are Edie Marsh, an entrepreneurial young woman whose scheme to sleep with a Palm Beach Kennedy has fizzled, freezing her to concoct a colossal insurance rip-off; Lester Maddox Parsons, a...

Meet twenty-two-year-old Cherry Pye (nee Cheryl Bunterman), a pop star since she was fourteenand about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster. Now meet Cherry again: in the person of her ';undercover stunt double,' Ann DeLusia. Ann portrays Cherry whenever the singer is too ';indisposed'meaning wastedto...

Grange, Florida, is, famous for its miracles-the weeping fiberglass Madonna, the Road-Stain Jesus, the stigmata man. And now it has JoLayne Lucks, unlikely winner of the state lottery. Unfortunately, JoLayne's winning ticket isn't the only one. The other belongs to Bodean Gazzer and his raunchy sidekick, Chub, who want the whole $28...