I read a couple of Carl Hiaasen's adult novels, thought them reasonably entertaining, but didn't find them as compelling as fellow Floridian Tim Dorsey's Serge Storms series. However, I decided to try his Newbery-Award-winning young adult novel, Hoot
, and enjoyed it very much. As in his adult novels, Hiaasen combines an offbeat sense of humor with a plot about preserving the unique flora and fauna in Florida.Roy Eberhardt is the new kid in his Coconut Cove, Florida, middle school. Between battles with the school bully, Roy finds out that a large pancake chain is getting ready to build on a site that's also home to several breeding pairs of endangered burrowing owls. He joins forces with a mysterious barefoot boy and his school's female soccer star to stop the development and save the owls.
,* Randy Wayne White's protagonist, Doc Ford, prevents a Senator from being kidnapped and then is hired by her to find the boy taken in her place. In the world of the novel, Fidel Castro has died, and the U.S. has taken custody of his documents, possessions, and files. Various parties, including Doc himself as well as the kidnappers, have a strong interest in those files. The action vacillates between Ford's native Florida and the Hamptons, an alien environment but one that White handles well.The kidnapped boy is a tough, gutsy figure, although his connection to Ford is a bit too coincidental to be believable. An entertaining read, but not one for those new to Doc Ford and his world.