Tourist Season

March 4, 1986
When the president of the Miami Chamber of Commerce is found dead inside a suitcase with his legs sawn off and a rubber alligator stuffed down his throat, news and police locals prefer to believe it's simply another typical South Florida crime. But when letters from a terrorist group, Las Noches de Diciembre, link the man's death to the disappearances of a visiting Shriner and a Canadian tourist, former newsman (now private eye) Brian Keyes intuits that someone is out to kill Florida's tourist trade. His investigation leads him to an old journalism crony obsessed with fury against the state's irresponsible development policies. Miami Herald columnist Hiaasen writes with a seriousness of intent and knack for characterization which, unfortunately, outstrip his comic talents. This is an auspicious solo debut for the serious Hiaasen (he has written three thrillers with William Montalbano), but a lukewarm one for him as a potential comic-absurdist. (March 24p

P.I. Brian Keyes finds himself enmeshed in a bizarre string of crimes: a series of murders perpetrated by a radical group using carnivorous reptiles, both living and rubber, as weapons in an attempt to free Florida from overdevelopment. This serviceable abridgment fails to capture the absurdity of the book. But Asner's exquisite narration more than makes up for it. His versatile voice is subtly varied for each character, never exaggerated and always on target. His snorting laugh as a redneck bartender demonstrates the care put into vocal characterization of even the smallest roles. D.T.H. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine