DOUBLE WHAMMY by Carl Hiaasen

R.J. Decker, star tenant of the local trailer park and neophyte private eye is fishing for a killer. Thanks to a sportsman’s scam that’s anything but sportsmanlike, there’s a body floating in Coon Bog, Florida — and a lot that’s rotten in the murky waters of big-stakes, large-mouth bass tournaments. Here Decker will team up with a half-blind, half-mad hermit with an appetite for road kill; dare to kiss his ex-wife while she’s in bed with her new husband; and face deadly TV evangelists, dangerously seductive women, and a pistol-toting redneck with a pit bull on his arm. And here his own life becomes part of the stakes. For while the “double whammy” is the lure, first prize is for the most ingenious murder.

That’s the blurb.  What it means if you are reading this before your second cup of coffee, is that in this book, is set in the small Florida town of Harney, which is a bass fishing mecca.  Sort of.  OK, here’s what I know about bass fishing:    0.     But not to fear, this book will tell you everything you never cared about knowing concerning bass fishing.  Like, it is a huge industry, its proponents are are wild eyed fanatics, and in bass fishing tournaments, as in all other areas of life, there are ways to game the system.

Somebody has gamed Harney’s tourney,  and one of it’s most fanatic fishermen is found swimming with the fishies on the local lake.   That is the beginning of the story.  I always like a story that begins with a bloated, fish-nibbled body.  Sets the tone, you know what I mean?

It turns out that a lot of characters are involved in this deal, including the local TV evangelist.  He wants the tourney to go well because he is buying property along the lake,  while industry further upstream is busy polluting it.  Some other super fine characters round out the story, and all in it was a fun read.

Spoiler alert:   you can game the bass tourney system by raising some big a$$ bass elsewhere, and putting them in a cage in the remoter parts of the lake and tah-dah!!!! you have caught the biggest bass.

In spite of my negative zero interest in fishing, I found the info about the sport and the intrigues pretty darn interesting, and it was a darn good mystery, too.

Want a quote?  Sure you do.

He hated trailer parks;  trailer parks were the reason God invented tornadoes.

Oh, and the title, Double Whammy?  That is a lure.  Learn something new every day, right?

Fore!  Oh, wait.  That’s golf.  Never mind.