Rating: 
Summary: Twisted humor at its best!
Review: Skin Tight, by Carl Hiaasen, takes place in a peculiar place in Biscayne Bay called Stiltsville. This is where retired investigator, Mick Stranahan lives. Stranahan has a hunch that someone is trying to kill him. Actually, he is sure someone is trying to kill him because he just had to spear an intruder with a stuffed marlin head, and he keeps getting shot at. All of this involves a missing persons case that happened many years before.
To get to the bottom of this one, he'll have to get through some pretty outlandish characters. Chemo for example. Chemo is one of the hit men sent to kill Stranahan. Many years ago, Chemo was involved in a freak plastic surgery accident that left him with a face that looks like rice crispies. Chemo has also replaced a missing arm with a weed whacker, yes, that's right, a weed whacker. There is also Dr. Graveline, an unlicensed plastic surgeon. Dr. Graveline is the one sending the hit men. Christina Marks, the producer for a popular television show, In Your Face, is one of the only normal characters in the book. Unlike the host of the show, Reynaldo Flemm, Christina just wants a good story, and she just may have found it with Stranahan.
The whole story revolves around the Victoria Barletta case. Victoria went missing after she went through her cosmetic surgery. She is believed to be dead. Stranahan has a hunch that it was her surgeon, Dr. Graveline who did it, and he just may be right.
One of my favorite parts in the book was one of Stranahan's first encounters with Chemo. As Chemo blew holes into his house with a machine gun, Stranahan was frantically running from area to area trying to dodge the bullets. In the end, Chemo ended up falling into the water, and having his hand devoured by a ravenous barracuda.
Between the chase scenes, the bribery, and the deceit, this book never had a dull moment. It is full of twisted humor that will keep you laughing for hours. I recommend this book to anyone who likes bizarre situations, outlandish characters, and never ending chaos.
Rating:
Summary: Funnier than a Botched Nose Job
Review: "Skin Tight" is one of Carl Hiaasen's earlier novels. Given the consistent quality of Hiaasen's prolific and wickedly funny skewering of south Florida and its wacky inhabitants, it is difficult to pick a Hiaasen "best", but "Skin Tight" is definitely a contender. In other works, Hiaasen has taken on south Florida institutions from televangelism to trophy bass fishing to stripping. In "Skin Tight", he tackles cosmetic surgery as the unlikely but content-rich target. Fans of this summer's Hiaasen bestseller, "Skinny Dip", will find this introduction to retired state investigator Mick Stranahan a somewhat darker and more grisly prequel. Cast with the author's usual collection of miscreants, sleaze balls, corrupt officials and incompetent crooks, "Skin Tight" ricochets from one bizarre and brutal high jinx to next, each one more depraved and disturbed than the previous. Given the seemingly endless stream of mayhem and murder in this zany tale, superlatives are risky, but certainly the method in which two terminally corrupt Miami detectives are dispatched is especially memorable.
Yet at the core of Hiaasen's carefully crafted chaos and black humor lies an insightful dissection of the shallowness and material corruption of American culture. In a tribute to Hiaasen's skills considerable literary skills, these messages never overshadow the entertainment value, nor require "progressive" political views to be appreciated. Ironic, sarcastic, and biting, "Skin Tight" represents another page-turner from Carl Hiaasen, today's undisputed master of mordancy.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is scary
Review: I did not like this book. Too complex to be fun. Unexpectedly bloody. Could have been sexier just to lighten things up. It is not as smooth as Hiaaen's more recent novels. The book itself is an excess. Too many characters that hang around too long, some should never have been introduced as they served no real purpose and got dropped later, like Al the Cuban detective. And there were too many strange and mysterious deaths of people who were guilty but did not, in my opinion, deserve to be killed like George. Mick may not be a killer, but he was certainly an accessory as things got more and more out of control. I thought that whole story line with the rezoning for the apartment building was unnecessary. Skin Tight would have benefited by focusing more attention on the clinic and its patients and doctors. Oh well. Not great, but still good.
Rating: 
Summary: Skin tight
Review: Funny Cinderella story. Great Hiassen characters that live fast-paced lives. A quick and fun read.
Rating:
Summary: Great Goofy Grifter Gags
Review: South Florida has been a national stereotype of corruption since developers began selling underwater real estate in swamps at premium prices in the 1920s to out-of-state "investors." It's been all downhill in the national psyche since then. Is it any wonder that many question the Presidential election results for their honesty in 2000?
Carl Hiaasen is one of our great comic crime writers, and Skin Tight is one of his best efforts. I missed the book when it first came out, but wanted to know more about Mick Stranahan after reading Skinny Dip (which I also loved).
Mick Stranahan is retired from the state police . . . because he was too good at his job. A crooked judge ended up dead, and the judge's friends didn't like that. The reverberations from that event continue in Skin Tight.
Mick spends his days with a little fishing and a little lazing in the sun in his stilt house built over the water. That idyllic existence is disturbed when someone sends a hit man to take him out. Being totally unprepared, Mick defends himself as best he can (in a way you'll never forget). Soon another hit man is on his way who presents a different challenge. Dead bodies are soon piling up on the beaches in south Florida, and his friends in police work keep asking him what he knows. Actually, he doesn't know very much at first. Gradually, he finds out that he's been set up to take a fall by a crooked witness in an investigation he ran four years earlier into the disappearance of a young woman after her plastic surgery.
Before he's done, Mick finds out who's after him . . . and closes up that old wound. In the process, there's more comic mayhem than you can imagine. You will probably find Chemo to be one of the best comic villains since "Jaws" in the James Bond movies.
If you dislike phonies, you will find several to dislike in the story . . . and each will get their comeuppance in deliciously appropriate ways.
If you enjoy Mick, be sure to read Skinny Dip as well.
Rating:
Summary: One of a kind
Review: I really loved this story. The characters were well-developed and the plot had me eagerly wanting to read more! (I'm a fan!)
Rating:
Summary: hilarious--i want some more of this guy!
Review: While I was reading Skin Tight, someone asked me what the book was about. As I tried to describe the basic storyline, I realized that the plot is not only hard to explain but extremely farfetched,bordering on preposterous. However, that's beside the point.The joy of reading this book comes from the way Hiaasen uses his wicked sense of humor and his vast writing skills to lambast society's corruption and greed. While protagonist Mick Stranahan is fighting mafia hitmen and outsmarting crooked cops, Hiaasen himself is busy skewering inept plastic surgeons and their narcissistic patients, made-for-tv lawyers, on-the-take politicians, corrupt judges, tourists, sleazy journalists, actresses, fashion models . . . and, I almost forgot, tree trimmers. Hiaasen's collection of colorful characters, fast-paced dialogue and ascerbic wit make Skin Tight an enjoyable read.
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