Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen

 

I'd never heard of the book or the author, but it was on my reading pile, it's bright green so it kept catching my eye, and it has a cute puppy on the front so, naturally, I gave it a go. And I was happily surprised. 

It's about an ever-so-slightly unhinged young man who is on an environmental crusade. He sees someone throw his litter out of the car window on the highway and follows him in order to teach him a lesson. However, the litterbug turns out to be a big-time fixer working on a housing development project which is going to wipe out a nature reserve island. This, clearly, requires greater action.

So, he (the unhinged young man) steals his (the litterbug fixer) dog and this leads to one of my favourite ever passages, as follows:

"The dog was having a grand time.

That's the thing about being a Labrador retriever - you were born for fun. Seldom was your loopy free-wheeling mind cluttered by contemplation, and never at all by somber worry; every day was a romp. What else could there possibly be to life? Eating was a thrill. Pissing was a treat, Shitting was a joy. And licking your own balls? Bliss. And everywhere you went were gullible humans who patted and hugged and fussed over you.

[the dog's name had been changed]

The new name? Fine. McGuinn was just fine. Boodle had been ok, too. Truthfully, the dog didn't care what they called him; he would have answered to anything. "Come on, Buttface, it's dinnertime!" - and he would've come galloping just as rapturously, his truncheon of a tail wagging just as fast."

Made me guffaw, quite frankly. Not least because our dog isn't sure whether his name is actually buttface or not.

Anyway... the litterbug fixer is an utterly loathsome character. There's no blurring of loyalties. You absolutely want revenge to be had and you root for the unhinged hero from beginning to end. And you laugh a lot along the way. There's nothing heavy about the story, it's easy reading all the way, which is perfect.

Twilly (the unhinged young man) ends up teaming up with a character who used to be the governor of the area and was a genuinely good politician who wanted to make things better. He, naturally, got hounded out of power by the corrupt scoundrels in office and ended up as a slightly unhinged recluse living in the everglades and following his own anti-establishment agenda. I am really hoping he's a regular character in Carl Hiaasen's books because I have a couple more by the same author on my pile and I will definitely be giving them a go.