On the HahaFiction shelf
Swamp Story
by Dave Barry
Finding gold in the Everglades could give Jesse Braddock and her baby a way out of their isolated cabin. It also gives criminals a reason to come looking for her. Nearby, a bait-shop owner invents a monster sighting to bring in customers, crowding Jesse’s escape route with tourists.
From the publisher’s blurb
“In fact, nothing in this story goes as planned.”Read the full description at Simon & Schuster
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What makes it funny?
The Everglades Melon Monster is a broke journalist in a Dora the Explorer costume head. The opening chapter has an equally poor candidate for local hero: Slater worries about filming a python while Jesse tries to protect their baby, and the cameraman has forgotten to charge the battery.
The comedy at work
Barry makes the pursuit of attention compete with basic survival. Slater sees a family emergency as television footage, while a shopkeeper’s publicity stunt brings spectators into a treasure hunt. People intent on staging excitement get in the way of someone facing actual danger.
Try this if…
For readers who like Florida crime fiction with several foolish schemes running into each other, the fake cryptid provides a particularly silly complication. Jesse’s wish to get her child somewhere safer gives the treasure hunt a more urgent purpose.
Good to know
The first chapter includes strong profanity and marijuana use, along with a python threatening a mother and infant. The criminal pursuit adds further peril to the comic setup.
More funny crime caper
Sources & further reading
- Publisher and opening chapter
Publisher
- Publishers Weekly review
Review
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