Carl Hiaasen ( editor ) - Naked Came the Manatee: A Novel

Pros: Wickedly funny and often right on target about the South Florida area

Cons: Some uneven spots

The Bottom Line: If you want a light summer read with dark wit and vivid descriptions of the South Florida region, this book's for you.

Review: Saturday night, Coconut Grove. It was the usual scene: thousands of people, not one of whom normal people would call normal. There were the European tourists, getting off their big fume-belching buses, wearing their new jeans and their Hard Rock ...

Pros: A unique novel if nothing else...

Cons: A bit fragmented, but that is to be expected.

The Bottom Line: Naked Came the Manatee is a piece of light reading I'm glad I didn't miss. It will not change the face of fiction, but it will make it smile.

Review: ...that I couldn't name 13 contemporary Floridian authors BEFORE reading this novel, you'd be a million dollars richer! However, what Naked Came the Manatee is and isn't in the way of content or literary worth notwithstanding, the novel itself is quite...

Pros: Good idea. Some funny and entertaining chapters.

Cons: Some of the authors drop the ball. Falls apart in the middle and end.

Review: It certainly sounded like a good idea. The Miami Herald's Tropic magazine pulled 13 of Miami's most well-known writers, including several well known mystery writers, to do a serial novel. Each writer would pick up his or her chapter where the...