On the HahaFiction shelf
Tricky Business
A Florida gambling boat heads into a tropical storm because its owner has a drug deal to hijack. Sharing the voyage are cocktail waitress Fay Benton, an inept ship's band and two elderly escapees from a care facility.
From the publisher’s blurb
“a ship’s band with so little talent they are . . . well, the ship’s band”Read the full description at G.P. Putnam's Sons / Penguin Random House
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What makes it funny?
The ship's elderly runaways supply wisecracks, while a local TV station's increasingly disastrous storm reporting supplies slapstick. Barry keeps cutting from the criminal scheme to people spectacularly failing at their jobs.
The comedy at work
Barry exaggerates crime-fiction conventions until the elaborate schemes and mounting deaths become part of the joke. Bungling authorities and incompetent performers make useful obstacles for criminals who already have a storm to contend with.
Try this if…
This suits a taste for South Florida crime farce with a crowded cast and lowbrow jokes. The appeal includes slapstick and toilet humor alongside the robbery plot.
Good to know
Expect numerous violent deaths, drug smuggling and marijuana use, plus nudity and sexual jokes. Publishers Weekly describes the sexual material as PG-rated, while noting the book's unusually high body count.
A few distinguishing details
- A casino cruise doubles as the setting for a drug-deal hijacking
- Disastrous television storm coverage alongside the shipboard crime
More funny crime caper
Sources & further reading
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