Title:

Skink No Surrender

Author:

Carl Hiassen

Category:

Literature

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

April 24, 2024

picked up Skink No Surrender because it was mentioned several times in the comments section of a column listing the funniest books written in the last fifty years. I did not know it was the seventh volume in Hiaasen's series starring the eccentric ex-governor of Florida, who refers to himself as Skink (his real name is Clint Tyree). It appears that each volume can be read independently of the other books in the series; I certainly had no difficulty following the story despite starting with the seventh installment. Skink No Surrender is good enough that it is worth hunting down other novels by Hiassen.

Is Skink No Surrender truly funny? It is written in a light-hearted tone, and there are quite a few absurd characters doing odd-ball things, but I did not actually laugh aloud at any point in the story. However, I do recall long-ago reading another Hiassen book, Skin Tight and laughing at that one. Skink No Surrender may not be a humor riot, but it does tell a good story that keeps the pages turning; I finished the 281 page novel in a couple of sittings.

Fifteen (?) year old Richard is best friends with his cousin, Malley. They have hung out together all their lives - yet when they were supposed to meet on a Florida beach at night to look for nesting turtles, and Malley did not show. Eventually Malley does give Richard a phone message, apologizing for missing their get together, but claiming that her parents had grounded her and she couldn't go to the beach. Richard heads over to Malley's house, and her parents don't know anything about grounding her. Worse, Malley is not home. Richard is not a trusting sort, he quickly is suspicious that all is not well with Malley.

While roaming on the turtle beach, Richard encountered a frightening old man - at least 6'4", with a false eye and eccentrically dressed. Despite his age, the old man (who calls himself Skink) has a lot of pep in his step. Skink had set a trap on the beach to encounter a poacher named Dodge Olney who raids turtle nests - the police have already busted Olney three times for messing with endangered species, Skink plans to deliver a more forceful message that Olney will take to heart. (It seems clear that Hiaasen is outraged by the careless way that humans treat wildlife - in this book there are some side tangents about ivory billed woodpeckers (now extinct), Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring, and of course, the endangered sea turtles.)

It soon becomes clear that Malley has run off with an older man, an man who claims his name is Talbo Chock. Unfortunately, the real Talbo Chock was a marine veteran who died in Afghanistan. Whomever the creep is that has lured Malley into his clutches, it is clear he has bad intentions.

Richard finds himself allied with Skink. It turns out that despite Skink's appearance, he has some lucid ideas plus a burning sense of justice. And now that turtle poacher Dodge Olney has paid a memorable price for his crimes, Skink is free to focus on his next task, which is rescuing Malley. Richard and his unusual partner find themselves driving up to the Florida panhandle, heading for a lonely stretch of river where they believe Malley is being held. Skink alternates between portrayed as a wise old man and a semi-sane guy with some decidedly unconventional ideas about how the world should work.

Reading Skink No Surrender is like reading a Kurt Vonnegut novel, with a plot interesting enough to keep you reading past your bedtime, and with enough off-kilter ideas to make the story more engaging.