Tourist Season

infobox Book |
name = Tourist Season
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Carl Hiaasen
cover_artist = George Corsillo
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Crime novel
publisher = G. P. Putnam's Sons
release_date = 1986
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 272 pp
isbn = ISBN 0399131450
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Tourist Season" is a novel written in 1986 by Carl Hiaasen. It is set in and around Miami, Florida.

Bookjacket tagline

"The only trace of the first victim was his Shriner's fez washed up on the Miami beach. The second victim was found dead with a toy alligator lodged in his throat. And that was just the beginning ... "

Plot summary

"Las Noches de Diciembre" (The Nights of December) are a small terrorist cell led by renegade newspaper columnist Skip Wiley, a brilliant but crazed Uncle Duke-like character.

Wiley believes that the only way to save Florida's Everglades from developers is to dissuade tourists from visiting and settling in Florida. Their preferred weapon of dissuasion is random attacks on tourists, using a giant crocodile called Pavlov to murder them.

The novel pits private detective Brian Keyes against the Miami police force, Chamber of Commerce and other establishment figures, who desperately seek to put the lid on Wiley's antics so that tourists will continue to visit Florida.

Because of this, even murder is covered up by the cops, and this ratchets up the tension, causing Skip to promise wider and more terrible destruction - focusing on the public appearances of Florida's Orange Bowl Queen.

Now Brian Keyes, reporter turned private eye, must move from muckraking to rooting out murder, in a caper that mixes football players, politicians, and police with a group of fanatics and a very hungry crocodile.

The book is not only an example of the crime fiction genre, but a satire as well, of many subjects from tourism to sports to race relations to the newsroom. It also contains examples of the literary device of the red herring; for example, deep background is given to characters who appear briefly only to die off, which keeps the reader guessing as to who will make it to the end of the book.

Themes

Hiaasen is a newspaper columnist from the "Miami Herald". In an interview, he said that he took much of his inspiration from his work on the Herald. [http://www.carlhiaasen.com/faqs-otherBooks.html] Readers may believe that Skip Wiley is a slightly more crazed version of the author; both are newspaper columnists, and both are very passionate and entertaining writers. One theme that persists in the book is moral ambiguity; while Brian Keyes understands the value of Skip Wiley's ends, Skip Wiley would have preferred a less violent means. Their conflict arises as a matter of where they place their allegiance: Brian Keyes to humankind, and Skip Wiley to the wild.

Hiaasen's novels typically deal with distinctly Floridian themes such as environmental destruction of unique ecosystems, the inability to sustain rapid growth, and crooked politicians, among others.

Cultural references

In his song, "The Ballad of Skip Wiley", Jimmy Buffett recapitulates some plot points from his friend's novel. The song also mentions Gov. Clinton "Skink" Tyree, who appeared in 5 of Hiaasen's later novels (but not this one).