This time the target of Hiaasen’s satirical eye is talentless celebrities and those who work to keep them popular by lying, fabricating and obfuscating. The talentless singer in this case is teenage Cherry Pye, whose parents employ an actress called Ann as a double to stand in as a decoy or fake presence whenever Cherry is too drugged, drunk or otherwise incapable to appear in reality. The plot is the usual Hiaasen mayhem, with sleazy, deluded paparazzi, homicidal bodyguards, kidnappings, fake kidnappings...and, of course, the Captain.
I think my reservations are really that, apart from Ann, there are almost no decent characters to stand against the scumbags and that the Captain is not in his natural element in the swamps, but negotiating the big, bad city, which doesn’t work so well for me.
That said, it’s still great fun. Even Hiaasen not at his very best is still well worth reading and I can recommend Star Island.
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