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Review by Tom Corcoran
Pure good fortune carries no baggage, no strings. But the $14 million won by JoLayne Lucks of rural Grange, Florida, is many favors shy of a full blessing. One of two individuals who must split a $28 million Florida lottery jackpot, JoLayne plans to purchase a 44-acre parcel of Florida wilderness and protect it from development. But in "Lucky You," the dream, good fortune and money hit the skids. Luck U-turns when JoLayne is attacked and relieved of her winning Lotto ticket by two men, one of whom holds the other $14 million ticket.
The assailants, Bodean Gazzer and Chub Gillespie, lowlife white supremacists from south Florida, won't be satisfied with Gazzer's measly $14 million. They want it all. They even recruit to their two-man militia the clerk who sold the winning ticket in Grange. Shiner, half white power groupie and half nuts, agrees to tell the world that, indeed, it was Chub, not JoLayne, who bought that other ticket. The attackers believe that, after laying low a few days, they will travel to Tallahassee and claim the $28 million that will fund their fledgling militia. With better weapons and camouflage duds (plus more beer and fried chicken wings), they can better defend the country against NATO troops about to launch an invasion from the Bahamas.
At this point Carl Hiaasen shifts into high gear. The author of six previous Florida-based mysteries, including "Tourist Season" and "Strip Tease," Hiaasen is a master of complications and a purveyor of satire. He recognizes that people and events viewed by Floridians as merely offbeat represent excess to those not indoctrinated. "Lucky You" builds a pyramid of good intentions gone sour, evil fueled by stupidity, enterprise based on Swiss cheese morals, of gullibility and vanity, unplanned craziness (including actual mental illness), and dreams of greatness run amok.
To reveal more would be to dilute a reader's enjoyment. But in "Lucky You" you may count on boat chases, exploding homes, down-home religious miracles, federal agents in extra-curricular activities, a half-hearted kidnapping, and, especially, Carl Hiaasen's nonstop and unique sense of the ridiculous. Once again Hiaasen's a sure bet. "Lucky You" is a winner.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.
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