Squeeze Me

I am normally a huge Carl Hiaasen fan and I am really not a fan of the current occupant of the White House. That made me think this novel about a wildlife wrangler based in Palm Beach dealing with an influx of pythons in Palm Beach, the location of the "Winter White House" would be right up my alley. There were some laugh-out-loud moments in the novel. After all, Hiaasen can be really funny. But the overall novel just  fell flat with me. 

In addition to being really smart-aleck funny, Hiaasen tends to focus on environmental issues and there just wasn't enough of  that in this novel. I tend to think that's what was missing for me.

A socialite in the POTUS fan club gets swallowed by a burmese python. The plot follows Angie, the wildlife wrangler, trying to figure out what's going on with the chief of  police and Secret Service. At a point, I really didn't care what was going on.

It was also unclear when this novel was supposed to be taking place. There were several references to the pandemic, but was the pandemic over? It didn't seem as though any virus mitigation efforts were in effect. So that was confusing and made me feel like this novel was rushed to print.

I hardly ever say this, usually giving a qualified recommendation, but you can give this one a miss. The blurb about the book was probably the best part.