STAR ISLAND By Carl Hiaasen, Knopf, 352 pages, $33
Nobody satirizes the rich, famous, boring and undeserving celebrities of Florida like native son Carl Hiaasen. Star Island is his vision of the drug-addled pseudostars who come to party and prate and, like all Hiaasen's work, it's absolutely fall-down-laughing funny. In fact, it's one of Hiaasen's best, right up there with his send-up of Mickey Mouse and the savaging of competitive bass fishing.
Cherry Pye is a teen-aged star completely created and dominated by her agent, her publicist, her parents, her entourage. She is also a totally talentless flake devoted to drugs, sex and celebrating her own celebrity. At 22, she's already on the has-been trail so she is in Florida where her assorted adults (in name only) hope to keep her sane and sober to get ready for a comeback tour. Naturally, Cherry has no interest in making this job easy.
Ann DeLusia is Cherry's double. She's the one who appears in the fan mags or on TV when the real Cherry is in the hospital, in rehab, or just too high to be out in public. It's a profitable gig but not one that is going to make much of a career path for a budding actress. When a nutty paparazzo kidnaps Ann, believing he's got Cherry, a whole new level of hell breaks open, in a style only Hiaasen could conjure up. At the centre is Skink, the ex-Governor of Florida, who lives in a hut, eats road-kill and allows no one to injure the people or the animals he loves. That, in time, includes Ann DeLusia and the vampires subsisting on Cherry Pye's career.
Star Island is so funny that it's worth reading twice just to get the stuff you miss on the first run. It also marks the return of Chemo, the weed-whacking villain of Skin Tight (he's been in prison, then paroled to work as a mortgage broker, now as Ms. Pye's bodyguard) who is one of Hiaasen's most hilarious characters. This one isn't to be missed by anyone who loves to laugh loudly and long. And, for those who care, there's a moral as well.
THE WHISPERERS By John Connolly, Atria, 294 pages, $29.99
John Connolly's forte is the thriller mixed cleverly with a touch of horror. The Whisperers is one of his best works ever as he turns Charlie Parker loose in the Maine woods with a malevolent force that has survived the ages.
The story begins in Iraq, the day that the National Museum was sacked and American troops stood by. The Chief Curator comes in after the looters have left and encounters a young American attempting to assist. Suddenly the curator realizes that the basement, where some of the finest works were hastily stored, may not have been touched. When he searches for a specific item, it's missing.
From here the story moves to Maine. The young American is back, at home, walking with his dog, then he kills himself. It's at this point that Charlie Parker comes into the plot, following a trail of death and a whispering evil that torments its victims.
RULES OF BETRAYAL By Christopher Reich, Doubleday, 372 pages, $29
It's the setting and characters that take this espionage thriller about a double-agent from ordinary to exceptional. Reich's "Rules" series has always had potential but this book takes him into a whole new arena.
Jonathan Ransom isn't a spy or a superhero. He's a doctor, working for Doctors Without Borders, dedicated to helping people in the midst of war and disaster. When his wife, Emma, disappears, he goes in search of her but Emma is not only an agent, she's a double agent. It appears that she's gone rogue and it all has to do with a spy plane that went down over Afghanistan 30 years ago.
Reich knows how to pace a thriller and he keeps the action going here, but not so much that he overwhelms a fine character who leads us into a cunning plot. Start this book and you won't be able to put it down.
ANATOMY OF MURDER By Imogen Robertson, Headline, 373 pages, $24.99
Instruments of Darkness, Imogen Robertson's debut, featuring Harriet Westerman and anatomist Gabriel Crowther, was an excellent beginning for a fine historical mystery series. Now Westerman and Crowther return in an even better story set amidst the splendour and squalor of 18th-century London.
The central plot revolves around a dead man pulled out of the Thames, a case which Westerman and Crowther are called to investigate. But there is a second plotline. Harriet Westerman's husband, Captain James Westerman, is in a nursing home for mental patients. What happened to him between the time he and his ship conquered a French ship laden with cargo and his arrival in England, in a coma? Harriet engages in murder investigation to take her mind off her personal tragedy. This is a really fine mystery with several intriguing twists and lots of period detail to keep the story rolling.
BLACK MOONLIGHT By Amy Patricia Meade, Midnight Ink, 232 pages, $16.95
This is the second in the 1930 series featuring mystery author Marjorie McClelland, and it's a frothy little treat. The setting is millionaires' row in Bermuda as Marjorie and husband Creighton Ashcroft head for a secluded holiday. To their shock (and Creighton's horror) their romantic hideaway has been invaded by Creighton's relations, and that's the beginning of a smart little drawing-room mystery that will delight fans of Golden Age murder.
MAMA GETS HITCHED By Deborah Sharp, Midnight Ink, 327 pages, $16.95
Snowbirds may be surprised to learn that there's a ranching panhandle in Florida that's as removed from the beaches as Arizona. This is Sharp's turf, and she takes full advantage of it. A wedding is being planned, complete with Gone With the Wind dresses and a full-dress Pomeranian pooch to carry the rings. That's reason enough to murder the bride, but it's the caterer who ends up as a corpse. This is a humorous little bit of fluff, perfect for the beach.