Andrew Yancy—late of the Miami Police and soon-to-be-late of the Monroe County sheriff’s office—has a human arm in his freezer. There’s a logical (Hiaasenian) explanation for that, but not for how and why it parted from its shadowy owner. Yancy thinks the boating-accident/shark-luncheon explanation is full of holes, and if he can prove murder, the sheriff might rescue him from his grisly Health Inspector gig (it’s not called the roach patrol for nothing). But first—this being Hiaasen country—Yancy must negotiate an obstacle course of wildly unpredictable events with a crew of even more wildly unpredictable characters, including his just-ex lover, a hot-blooded fugitive from Kansas; the twitchy widow of the frozen arm; two avariciously optimistic real-estate speculators; the Bahamian voodoo witch known as the Dragon Queen, whose suitors are blinded unto death by her peculiar charms; Yancy’s new true love, a kinky coroner; and the eponymous bad monkey, who with hilarious aplomb earns his place among Carl Hiaasen’s greatest characters.
Here is Hiaasen doing what he does better than anyone else: spinning a tale at once fiercely pointed and wickedly funny in which the greedy, the corrupt, and the degraders of what’s left of pristine Florida—now, of the Bahamas as well—get their comeuppance in mordantly ingenious, diabolically entertaining fashion.
Love, love, love this author!! This one was awesome, as usual!
23. Takedown Twenty...Janet Evanovich
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New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum knows better than to mess with family. But when powerful mobster Salvatore “Uncle Sunny” Sunucchi goes on the lam in Trenton, it’s up to Stephanie to find him. Uncle Sunny is charged with murder for running over a guy (twice), and nobody wants to turn him in—not his poker buddies, not his bimbo girlfriend, not his two right-hand men, Shorty and Moe. Even Trenton’s hottest cop, Joe Morelli, has skin in the game, because—just Stephanie’s luck—the godfather is his actual godfather. And while Morelli understands that the law is the law, his old-world grandmother, Bella, is doing everything she can to throw Stephanie off the trail.
It’s not just Uncle Sunny giving Stephanie the run-around. Security specialist Ranger needs her help to solve the bizarre death of a top client’s mother, a woman who happened to play bingo with Stephanie’s Grandma Mazur. Before Stephanie knows it, she’s working side by side with Ranger and Grandma at the senior center, trying to catch a killer on the loose—and the bingo balls are not rolling in their favor.
With bullet holes in her car, henchmen on her tail, and a giraffe named Kevin running wild in the streets of Trenton, Stephanie will have to up her game for the ultimate takedown.
Yay...She has finally gotten back into her writing groove! She was stuck in a rut there for a few books, but this one and the last one were great again!
24. Final Jeopardy...Linda Fairstein
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This critically acclaimed, explosive thriller is a book only prosecutor Linda Fairstein could write. Patricia Cornwall knows the morgue; John Grisham knows the courtroom; but no one knows the inner workings of the D.A.'s office like Linda Fairstein, renowned for two decades as head of Manhattan Sex Crimes Unit. Now that world comes vividly to life in a brilliant debut novel of shocking realism, powerful insight, and searing suspense.
Alexandra Cooper, Manhattan's top sex crimes prosecutor, awakens one morning to shoking news: a tabloid headline announcing her own brutal murder. But the actual victim was Isabella Lascar, the Hollywood film star who sought refuge at Alex's Martha's Vineyard retreat. Was Isabella targeted by a stalker or -- mistaken for Alex -- was she in the wrong place at the wrong time? In an investigation that twists from the back alleys of lower Manhattan to the chic salons of the Upper East Side. Alex knows she'sin final jeopardy...and time is running out. She has to get into the killer's head before the killer gets to her.
Meh. I have a couple more of her books, but am in no hurry to read them. The book wasn't bad, per se, but I have too many other (more interesting) books to get to right now.
25. Strong Curves...Bret Contreras
26. Lacrosse for Dummies...James Hinkson
27. Grits and Grunts: Folkloric Key West...Stetson Kennedy
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Many a book has been written about Key West, but there has never been anything like Stetson Kennedy’s Grits & Grunts, a portrait of the Key West that was. Neither a history (though you will learn a lot about Key West’s unique past) nor a guidebook (though you will learn more about Key West than any guides offer), Grits & Grunts is a treasure trove gleaned from the rich multiculture that came to full-flower on “The Rock” during the first half of the twentieth century, “when Key West was Key West.”I love all the old stories about Key West, plus we collect Mario Sanchez prints, so this book was a fun read for me.
You’ll find an abundant sampling of the inimitable art of Mario Sanchez, whose carved bas-relief paintings of Key West street scenes are in great demand around the world, as well as many never-before-published photographs. The overflowing Key West songbag is also here in all its abundance, from lullabies to traditional ballads, as well as games and folktales.
28. An Appetite for Murder...Lucy Burdette
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Hayley Snow's life always revolved around food. But when she applies to be a food critic for a Key West style magazine, she discovers that her new boss would be Kristen Faulkner-the woman Hayley caught in bed with her boyfriend! Hayley thinks things are as bad as they can get-until the police pull her in as a suspect in Kristen's murder. Kristen was killed by a poisoned key lime pie. Now Hayley must find out who used meringue to murder before she takes all the blame.
29. Death in Four Courses...Lucy Burdette
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The annual Key West Loves Literature seminar is drawing the biggest names in food writing from all over the country, and Haley Snow is there to catch a few fresh morsels of insider gossip. Superstar restaurant critic Jonah Barrows has already ruffled a few foodieThese were cute and I'll read the next two in the series whenever the library gets them in. The author is also really nice...I met her at an outdoor market here in Key West a couple of weeks ago.
feathers with his recent tell-all memoir, and as keynote speaker, he promises more of the same jaw-dropping honesty.
But when Hayley discovers Jonah's body in a nearby dipping pool, the cocktail hour buzz takes a sour turn, and Hayley finds herself at the
center of attention--especially with the police. Now it's up to her to catch the killer before she comes to her own bitter finish.
30. Bloody Waters...Carolina Garcia-Aguilera
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Although Garcia-Aguilera, like her sleuth, Guadalupe ("Lupe") Solano, has worked as a Miami PI, her first effort has more melodrama than mystery. Lucia and Jose Moreno were happy when their high-society lawyer arranged a no-questions-asked adoption; but now that their daughter's life depends on a bone-marrow transplant from her birth mother, he's no help. So they've come to Lupe, a Mercedes-driving, Beretta-toting daughter of Miami's Cuban American elite, who taps a wide network of friends and lovers in her effort to find the child's biological mother. She succeeds, but at a price. Not long after Lupe realizes that she's being tailed, a man is killed. Then luck delivers Barbara Perez, a link in the illegal-adoption chain, and Lupe must overcome the woman's hostility and persuade her to undertake a dangerous journey. Lupe and her eccentric family (a bodybuilding cousin; a dad who keeps a boat provisioned for the day when Castro falls; a sister who's a nun) have a charm that bodes well for future outings.
31. Bloody Secrets...Carolina Garcia-Aguilera
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Miami P.I. Lupe Solano has been called "funny, sexy, and Miami-smart" by Nelson DeMille, and "an absolute joy" by The Miami Herald. Now the celebrated sleuth returns. In a sweeping story that takes readers from the last days of Batista's Havana, to the Guantanamo Bay refugee camp, to Miami's high society, Lupe takes the case of a balsero-a refugee who escaped Cuba by raft. Luis is a drifter living in a flophouse, but he claims Miami's most prominent Cuban couple has robbed his family and arranged for his murder. Lupe is instantly drawn to Luis, and his sense of honor. But the case becomes troubling when innocent people are killed and when her feelings for her client become more than professional. A page-turning mystery, a remarkable glimpse into the lives of all strata of Cuban-American society, and a fascinating look into the moral quandaries an investigator faces, Bloody Secrets is Garcia-Aguilera's boldest achievement yet.
32. A Miracle in Paradise...Carolina Garcia-Aguilera
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Smart, savvy Lupe Solano returns for murder, romance and another cafe con leche in the fourth installment of Garc!a-Agu!lera's Miami-based series (Bloody Secrets, etc.). This time it's Lupe's sister Lourdes, who's a nun at the Order of the Holy Rosary, who presents the PI with a troubling mystery. Lourdes's Mother Superior hires Lupe to look into claims that on October 10, Cuban Independence Day, a miracle will take place when the holy statute of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre will cry tears over the separation of her people in Cuba and the U.S. Lupe has less than a month to find out who or what is behind this miracle, and if it will indeed take place. Her trusty sidekicks Nestor and Marisol, at first wary of the very notion of questioning the Catholic Church, assist Lupe in the investigation, digging into the suspicious activities of a group of Yugoslavian nuns who are undoubtedly tied into to the miracle. When corpses start turning up, Lupe knows she's involved in dangerous business, but her curiosity impels her to seek the truth. A memorable tale of Cuban-American life, this novel boasts an engaging plot and a fiery heroine armed with sharp insights into Cuban and Catholic ways that will lead readers happily into the sultry heat of Little Havana.
33. Havana Heat...Carolina Garcia-Aguilera
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Lupe Solano is a sexy, scrappy Miami PI whose social status as a daughter of the Cuban-exile aristocracy opens a lot of doors in South Florida. What's behind those doors in Havana Heat include family secrets, tangled political alliances, and the rumored (but undiscovered) final tapestry in the Unicorn series, the Flemish masterpieces bought from a French aristocrat by John D. Rockefeller and given by him to New York's Cloisters Museum, where they draw thousands of admirers annually.
A lavish wedding uniting two members of Cuban-American royalty sets the scene for the secret assignment pressed on Lupe by Lucia Miranda, whose ancestor sailed with Christopher Columbus, got off the boat in Cuba after the last voyage, and supposedly kept his captain's gift from Queen Isabella--the eighth Unicorn tapestry. Lucia wants Lupe to retrieve the tapestry from its hiding place in Havana and smuggle it back to Miami. Since Lupe's already made a specialty of reuniting the stolen or confiscated work of Cuban artists with the rightful owners, and the Unicorn tapestries have a special place in her heart, she agrees to the proposition--much to the dismay of her boyfriend, a sexy Cuban activist lawyer. But there's a backup boy toy waiting in the wings who offers Lupe another job that dovetails neatly with the Unicorn hunt and points her to Havana in her father's luxurious Hatteras yacht.
Love this series! I still have a couple to go and I'm going to check out some of her stand-alones, too.
34. Libriomancer...Jim C. Hines
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Isaac Vainio is a Libriomancer, a member of the secret organization founded five centuries ago by Johannes Gutenberg. Libriomancers are gifted with the ability to magically reach into books and draw forth objects. When Isaac is attacked by vampires that leaked from the pages of books into our world, he barely manages to escape. To his horror he discovers that vampires have been attacking other magic-users as well, and Gutenberg has been kidnapped.This book was great...probably the best I've read in a while! I absolutely loved the ideas and can't wait for the rest of the series.
With the help of a motorcycle-riding dryad who packs a pair of oak cudgels, Isaac finds himself hunting the unknown dark power that has been manipulating humans and vampires alike. And his search will uncover dangerous secrets about Libriomancy, Gutenberg, and the history of magic. . . .
35. Key West: History of an Island of Dreams...Maureen Ogle
36. A Key West Companion...Christopher Cox
37. 1000 Indian Recipes...Neelam Batra
38. Digestive Health with Real Food...Aglaee Jacob
39. Bitter Sugar...Carolina Garcia-Aguilera
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The dearest friend of Lupe Solana's beloved "Papi," Ramón Suarez was the owner of a prosperous sugar mill back in Cuba until Castro forced him into exile. Now an unnamed Spanish source wants to purchase the confiscated property at a fraction of its true value. Suarez wants the sexy, smart, hot-tempered South Florida P.I. to find out why, but Ramon's lazy, no-good nephew Alexander just wants to take the money and run. Then Alexander is found brutally slain in a sleazy Miami hotel -- his last known visitor, Tío Ramón, accused of murder. Lupe's routine journey down a paper trail now turns into something darker and more twisted, entangling her in a mysterious web of spun sugar and blood that will bring bullets smashing through her window and death to her door.
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