Sick Puppy

I’ve read several of Hiaasen’s books. Reading all of his books is definitely on my “bucket list.” In case you have not read anything by Hiaasen then let me tell you the basics. Hiaasen is a genius when it comes to characters. I wouldn’t even care if his books lacked a plot, his characters are so interesting. You will meet the strangest people on this planet in Hiaasen’s world. But don’t worry, his plots are deep, too. Hiaasen’s stories are always in Florida, and there is always something environmental going on.

In Sick Puppy (1999), the pro-environmental protagonist (of course) is Twilly. Twilly is more than just recycling advocate. He is a borderline lunatic with sociopathic tendencies, all in the name of the environment, of course. The wrong grease-ball land developers decide not to take him seriously, because while Twilly seems like a very mild and at worse scatter-brained threat at first glance, he can actually be quite calculating and purposeful and, well, even dangerous.

You will get some laughs when you read Hiaasen, because of the hyperbole of his characters, his use of irony, and the protagonist usually gets what coming in the end. It never comes easy though, and watching Twilly wind his way through his form of vigilante environmental justice is good fun. There are a handful of easy-to-hate antagonists in this one, but Palmer Stoat is the chief amongst them. Watching this bloated self-important jackass learn to become paranoid is good for a few laughs.

The plot has a fair balance between that which you would expect, and a few game changers.
Hiaasen scores 100% at clarity of purpose and quality of prose, and Sick Puppy is just one of many that achieves this for him.

I think this was one of Hiaasen's best. Not all of his books will get 100 from me. Sometimes his "rich" characters are a little too far over the top. In this book, he finds the balance between bizarre and believable, which makes it highly entertaining. Sick Puppy gets a very rare 100 from me.