Read: 8 July, 2007JoLayne Lucks has won the lottery. In a town where miracles are made of plastic Maries with water pump tears, a real miracle becomes quite the center of attention. Bodean Gazzer and Chub, two Neo-Nazis who would rather blame just about anyone but themselves for their less-than-perfect lives, also win the lottery and decide to use the money to start up a militia. When they find out that their winnings will be split, they decide to steal the other ticket. JoLayne, how has plans of her own for the money, enlists the help of Tom Krome (a once successful journalist who now only writes the "fluff news") to track Bodean and Chub down and take back what's rightfully hers.
I love Hiaasen's writing style. It strikes me as very conversational (a great change from the novels I read for school!) and filled with humour that sometimes touches on over-the-top. I enjoyed most of the novel, but the end seemed to display a very questionable morality. Bodean is killed and Chub is badly injured. JoLayne, who cannot bear to be his cause of death, heals his wounds. She then proceeds to abandon him on the island where he eventually starves and is eaten by scavenger birds.
I found this to be very inconsistent behavior for someone who, just recently, had claimed not to want to cause the death of a fellow living creature. In fact, the very casualness with which Tom and JoLayne leave Chub struck me as disturbing. They seemed to see absolutely nothing wrong with the act, justifying it merely by stating that they had no way to prove that their version of the story was the true one should the police intervene - the sort of thinking a psychopath might used. A character set up to be as caring as JoLayne might at least have lost a few nights of sleep.
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