Skin Tight

By: Carl Hiaasen

Narrated by: George Wilson

Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

This novel by Carl Hiaasen, author of Tourist Season and Native Tongue, begins as most thrillers do, with a killing. But this is no everyday, hum-drum, garden variety killing. Our hero, Nick Stranahan, a 42-year-old private investigator who has killed five men and been married five times, skewers his attacker's aorta with the razor-sharp bill of a stuffed marlin, setting off a roller coaster ride of events that will drop-kick Stranahan into the deep slime of Miami's prosperous plastic surgery industry.

As with Hiaasen's other books, Skin Tight is one long, extended farce, a comic take on everything from TV tabloid hosts to ambulance chasers, chronicling modern America's ever-growing penchant for tastelessness, self-absorption, and high sleaze.

You will find yourself laughing in spite of yourself at wildly improbable characters like Chemo, a 7-foot monster with a face like a bowl of breakfast cereal; Heather Chappell, who wants to completely renovate her Barbi-doll body; and Reynaldo Flemm, the host of prime time's In Your Face, who stages mock attacks to his person in order to increase the Nielsen ratings.

©1989 Carl Hiaasen (P)1993 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Hiaasen's latest thriller is his funniest and sharpest novel to date....This wickedly amusing story is the work of a keen satirist who off-handedly exposes the moral rot at every level of society." (Publishers Weekly)

❤FIVE STARS❤

Listening to the magical duo of Carl Hiaasen & George Wilson is always a treat. No matter how crummy my day has been I can always count on the talent of these two gents to bring a smile to my face. George is the ONLY narrator that can convey the snarky wit that Mr. Hiaasen's novels are drenched in..... Now if Audible would do the noble thing and re-record the rest of Hiaasen's novels using the very talented George Wilson we would all be so grateful❣❣❣

Classically entertaining Hiaasen. Great story.

Once again it's impossible for Carl to disappoint. Greatly funny and entertaining book. Top notch.

Relaxing read

This was a fun book to listen to. I enjoyed all the characters and the
pace. I highly recommend to anyone wanting a relaxing read.

Not for the squeamish

That said, it didn’t bother me at all.

I first read this book 30 years ago, and I consider it one of Hiassen’s best (maybe Striptease is better, but not by much). It holds up all these years later, and I enjoyed listening to the audio book.

Amazingly Entertaining Book

I finally got to Carl Hiaasen on my list. Let’s just say that this is an amazing book. I have listened to three of them this week! So far all of the narrators are great. You get the mystery of what’ll happen next, to the charismatic adoration of the protagonists, and maybe an antagonist, and the humor is perfectly placed. I find myself non-stop listening, and laughing out loud on some parts. I highly recommend this book.

**Note to author: please do more Mick Stranahan character books please!!

Not for everybody

This book is not for everyone, only those that appreciate a dark sense of humor, a good story with more twists and turns than a sports car road race, vivid and right on point criticism of what has happened to South Florida and a book that is hard to put down. Warning: if you listen to it in public, you may find yourself laughing out loud before you know it.

I think I missed something

All the reviews of this said how funny it was. Perhaps I should not have tried it right after reading Open and Shut. There were some things that I thought might have been amusing, but only after I stopped and thought about it. Maybe the performance was too subtle for me. I usually "get it" when it's subtle, but there was some brutality in this that just wasn't funny. I will give it another try, perhaps after a text book or something with no expectation. The narrator sounded fine, but what was funny got right passed me.

Skin Tight (Unabridged)

Carl Hiaasen's humor was enjoyable, and the narrator was quite good.
I recommend it for those who like a chuckle!!

Better read than listened to—-

I’ve read at least eight of Hiassan’s lunatic murder and suspense novels since I first discovered him in the 1980’s.

In each case, the cast of nearly unbelievable and outsized (but all too human in their venery), freaky characters came at me like terrible, Halloween clowns, one piling on top of the other as they exited a clown car manufactured, improbably, by Jaguar or Maserati.

Against this numbered foe is always the hero—not altogether socially adjusted—for whom Hiassen is the avuncular righter-of-wrongs. Mac, the retired almost middle-aged ex-Florida State criminal investigator and then lackadaisical P.I. becomes the target of the violent clowns. He also has to watch out for pretty women, particularly pretty waitresses, five of whom he has proposed to, been accepted by, and then divorced. “It’s a disease,” he explains. Now, in defense, he asks every pretty girl or young woman to name all of the Beatles (full names) before he’ll sleep with her. If they can’t, he says, “No, you’re too young,” and knows he’s dodged another bullet.

Real bullets and other horrific acts occur in this novel as they do in all of this talented writer. But offering a simplified plot summary would be a spoiler and wouldn’t explain the title (or my rating) of the book.

Everytime I have READ one of Hiassen’s books in the past, his perfect narratorial voice came through. Each character’s voice and background was distinct in my ears. But here’s the kicker: I knew before I started the book to grab a big box of tissues because before I reached page five, I would be laughing so hard that I’d be wiping tears from my eyes, blowing my nose, and catching my breath because I would have come to a series of the master’s inappropriate but perfect metaphors or similes that flips a grisly scene or the entry of another monster into the ABSURDLY dizzying world of this author’s great talent.

I highly recommend his books. Go to his author webpage and start in chronological order. Read or listen.

Typical. Hidden!

Always the tongue in cheek humor and descriptive adjectives for each character. Still all the humor still creates an intriguing storyline.