Star Island - 9780307272584

"Carl Hiaasen isn't just Florida's sharpest satirist-he's one of the few funny writers left in the whole country ... I think of him as a national treasure [and] I have yet to be disappointed." --- Newsweek

"Just sit back and watch as Hiaasen, with his customary flourish, spins a glittering magic wheel and comes up with another set of characters only he could create." --- The Washington Post Book World

"Hiaasen's wasteland is as retributive as Cormac McCarthy's, but funnier ... His pacing is impeccable, and the scenes follow one another like Lay's potato chips." --- The New York Times Book Review

"Hiaasen [is] king of the screwball comedies ... The charismatic, animated characters deliver lines that will bring tears of laughter to even the most jaundiced readers ... This is top-notch storytelling by a truly original comic novelist." --- Rocky Mountain News

"A whole lot Survivor, a little bit The Tempest, with a pinch of Laurel and Hardy ... Hiaasen's ear is pitch-perfect." --- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Meet twenty-two-year-old Cherry Pye (nee Cheryl Bunterman): a pop star since she was fourteen---and 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 wasted---to go out in public. And it is Ann-mistaken-for-Cherry who is kidnapped from a South Beach hotel by obsessed paparazzo Bang Abbott

Now the challenge for Cherry's handlers (uber-stage mother; horndog record producer; nipped, tucked, and Botoxed twin publicists; weed whacker-wielding bodyguard) is to rescue Ann while keeping her existence a secret from Cherry's public---and from Cherry herself

The situation is more complicated than they know. Ann has had a bewitching encounter with Skink---the unhinged former governor of Florida living wild in a mangrove swamp---and now he's heading to Miami to find her ...

Will Bang Abbott achieve his fantasy of a lucrative private photo session with Cherry Pye? Will Cherry sober up in time to lip-synch her way through her concert tour? Will Skink track down Ann DeLusia before Cherry's motley posse does?

All will be revealed in this hilarious spin on life in the celebrity fast lane