Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen

Have I mentioned how much I love Carl Hiaasen?

This time, two guys each fight "progress" that is destroying their little corners of paradise - one a former cop in Florida with an illegal, unfinished McMansion next door, the other a Bahamian whose beach is sold out from under him and developed.

Stir that together with a sexy coroner, lots of hungry sharks, a scary voodoo queen, an angry monkey (who was in Pirates of the Caribbean with Johnny Depp), bad seafood, and a little Medicare fraud and you've got another fantastic, truth-is-stranger-than-fiction Hiaasen novel.

The action is fast-paced, the dialog snappy, and the hurricane imminent. Hiaasen's books are always full of pop culture references, and this one's par for the course; you might argue that Hiaasen's not really breaking any new ground here, but I've yet to bog down in a dull moment or yawn at the antics. He keeps the story moving, twisting in the wind, and I still find myself barking out unexpected laughter.

Highly recommended!

Death Echo

by Elizabeth Lowell

Emma is ex-CIA, but she got tired of the political machinations that make getting the job done, shall we say, sticky. She's now, officially, in the business of high end insurance repossession. Unofficially, she's pretty much still an operative. St. Kilda consulting has sent her on a mission to find a missing yacht. However, that "boat" is likely to be carrying some dangerous cargo. Emma works well with her partner, sniper, Mac Durand, to solve the puzzle and stop the plot against a world superpower.

Lowell started out as a romance writer, but she kept the sentiment to a minimum in this book. Although the entire novel spans just nine days in the characters lives, the story does not move at a breakneck pace. The characters are masters at their jobs, but we learn little about their lives away from this mission.

The Widower's Tale by Julia Glass

Percival Darling's adjustment to retirement isn't what he thought it would be. His grown daughter is back, her life in shambles. He has somehow been talked into allowing his beloved barn to be converted into a daycare center - which also means his skinny-dipping days in the pond are numbered. Plus, he's met a woman who reminds him (for the first time in decades) that he has baser urges. It's a book about the quirkiness of families and the inevitable yet unexpected life changes we all face.

I absolutely loved this book! Can't make any bones about it. Percy's a cranky treasure, educated and caustic, sarcastic and curmudgeonly, and yet soft and squishy at the center. He's not the kind of guy many people feel warmly toward, so it makes his name even funnier: everybody sounds like they're saying, "Percy, darling!"

Beyond the titular character, there are several other first-person storylines: a gay teacher at the daycare, Percy's Harvard-student grandson, and a illegal immigrant worker. There's a lot going on in the tight-knit cast of characters, but you come to love and enjoy all these people and their eccentricities.