As far as the significant's of Viceroy's demise - to be honest it didn't really dawn on me, in part because I was a bit dismayed by the fact that Hiaasen dropped the ball on the one yard line, when having Keyes and the rest of the Miami police department conveniently forget that the Orange Bowl queen made one last brief appearance during the game. A bit far fetched for me, particularly given that both Keyes and Garcia were such compelling, competent figures, but given that it was the only minor gripe I had with the entire story, let's move on. All in all, the ending, like the book in its entirety, had style, and I'm not trying to take anything away from that.
Hiaasen is a wonderful, inventive writer and I appreciate his environmental bent - and I'd agree that his works draws you in - although I'm not prepared to lay any blame at his doorstep in connection with the continuing exploitation of Florida...I recently spent some time in Key West (a business trip of sorts), and being that I was far more sober than during my last visit, it got me thinking about how much better Key West probably was before it became the spring break destination for coeds, but then again it wasn't all that long ago that we were the drunk coeds down there, not giving much of a thought to things like this.
I suspect that Hiaasen probably doesn't get the credit, but I'm not ready to give him the type of accolades Matt's been advocating. I like that his novels are fun, easy to read and well-crafted, but also littered with important messages that I can get behind. For me, that's what sets him apart from some of the other writers who you might be just as talented, but stick to some contrived who-dunnits or my current bete noire, those involving terrorists.
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