Womanizer and substance abuser Clure Boyette has a lock on winning his Florida reelection campaign-his opponent is a single mother without significant cash flow and a Democrat in a solid red area. But you can never be too sure. That's why he has convinced the couple funding the Mink Foundation that to further their right-wing goals, their best move would be to fund him. He sets up a phony charity called The Wee Hammers whose purpose is to teach little children to work construction jobs so they could leave elementary school with marketable skills (and they are actually "building" a house). The Minks can now funnel 2 million dollars to Boyette's campaign without being tied to him and he can buy himself a group of white extremists to make sure he wins his race.
Of course, in any plan there is always a fly in the ointment-but in this case it's a swarm. Dale Figgo and Jonas Onus are in a constant battle for the leadership of their Proud Boys wannabe losers group, Strokersz for Liberty, and are always trying to get their hands on Boyette's cash. Boyette's father has been cleaning up his son's messes for years so that when he needs political clout, it's bought and paid for. Viva Morales, who works for the Minks is great with the sweet talk but not the follow through. But the worst threat to the "fool-proof" plan is Twilly Spree, a multimillionaire do-gooder with anger issues who is not happy with anything that Boyette is doing, and has ways to stop him. Some of them are actually legal.
If you read Hiaassen's previous book Squeeze Me, you'll have a good idea of where this one is going. Sending up Florida, dirty politics, and ultra right wing extremism, Fever Beach is hysterically funny while also envisioning an unfortunately plausible scenario in these fraught political times. Much more fulfilling than watching the news.
Reviewed by Donna Ballard
May 13, 2025
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