Skinny Dip - Carl Hiaasen

This book has the most amazing beginning. Joey Perrone is tossed of a cruise ship by her husband on their anniversary cruise. On the way down she's thinking of what a jerk he is. She is kept alive by her experience on her college swim team, a wayward bale of Jamacan pot and finally by Mick Stranahan who pulls her from the water.

Joey is wealthy - she and her brother were left a large inheritance when her parents died in a plane crash that was caused by a performing bear. Honest, I couldn't make this up.

She's at a loss as to why her husband would want to kill her - there was a prenup and an ironclad will. Anger takes over and she doesn't call the cops but decides to get even -- first by haunting him a bit, driving him a little crazy, and eventually blackmail. Which, I have to say is a plotline that truly tickles the funny bone.

Mick is an ex cop, has 6 ex-wives, one doberman and lives on an isolated island. He helps Joey get back at her husband.

Her husband Chaz is a marine biologist who hates the outdoors. He is lazy, greedy, self-centered,corrupt and arrogant. He's is a hedonist with no apparent ethics and no redeeming qualities. Because of his reactions to the 'haunting', he is assigned a body guard by a shady agri-businessman businessman named Red Hammernut who has paid Chaz to falsify environmental records. His body guard is a bear-like man who is made more ornery by a bullet lodged in his butt crack.

Detective Karl Rolvagg knows Chaz isn't telling the truth, but without evidence he is at a loss. Oh, and he has pet pythons.

It's obvious that Hiaasen loves the ocean, Florida, and the everglades. He takes every opportunity to stump for their preservation - but it doesn't detract from the story.

While it's definitely not a whodunit - you know that information on page one - the only real mystery is why. It's also a wonderful story about a cast of several charming and likeable characters and a few complete idiots - all running amok.