For years I've been cursing the heavens and randomly shoving small children to the floor in the local grocery store's cereal aisle, not because I'm a bad man, but because not a single one of Laurence Shames's loosely related Key West books were available on Kindle. To those of us here at FPF, that's like Carl Hiaasen releasing a new book but only printing one copy and hiding it somewhere in the Everglades.Well, in case you're the last to know, all six of Mr. Shames's "mafiosos' in paradise" stories are available on the e-reader of your choice for the pittance of $2.99 each. If you don't think this is a great deal, I want you to smack yourself in the head right now. In fact, make it six times. One for each book. Now go out and buy 'em all before they wise up and raise the price.On to the FPF review of Mangrove Squeeze.We've got a sizable cast of characters running around town for this tropical adventure. There's Suki Sperakis, a wannabe journalist selling ad space in Key West's local fish wrap. Her love interest, Aaron Katz, and his senile dad, Sam, recently relocated from somewhere up north and are hellbent on restoring a rundown guest house. And we mustn't forget Pineapple and Fred, the "homeless" gents who actually do have a home of sorts, even if it is an abandoned weinermobile tossed into the mangrove swamps east of the airport. Then there's Bert the Shirt, a retired mobster down from New Yawk, and his arthritic chihuahua, Don Giovana.Into this mess strides a handful of Russian mafia goons who own a bunch of t-shirt shops on Duval Street, retail establishments that are actually a front for other criminal enterprises: money laundering, stolen art, and plutonium smuggling. Wait, you're wondering what's so criminal about selling t-shirts on Duval Street? Obviously, you've never shopped there.Though lesser known to the bestseller lists, Laurence Shames's tropical fiction should be held in the same high esteem reserved for other Florida writers with names like Hiaasen, Dorsey, and McDonald. To be more accurate, Shames is like Hiaasen without the potty mouth and over-the-top eccentricity, or maybe Elmore Leonard with a softer edge. What he does is write great ensemble books with a sense of humor set amidst the palms and gently lapping waves, and there ain't nothing wrong with that.The plot? Standard stuff. Suki starts nosing around the Russian mob's illegitimate enterprise, only to be marked for death when they find out. While the bad guys scramble to cover their rear ends from the local authorities, Aaron, Sam, Bert, Fred, and Pineapple scramble to save the day.Read very far into Mangrove Squeeze and you'll encounter the Shames penchant for writing dialogue in gangsterese. "Ya' got dat?" Trust me, in his capable hands this actually works quite well. If you haven't tried a Laurence Shames novel yet, what are you waiting for? An engraved invitation? Trust me, there aren't many writers around this good at sticking you smack dab into the essence of the Florida Keys and holding you there 'til you scream for mercy.
During the 1990s Laurence Shames published a series of standalone comic noir novels set in Key West, Florida. Mangrove Squeeze was the fifth. In the tradition of Carl Hiassen and Tim Dorsey, Shames sets ordinary people in the crazy underbelly of Florida, interacting with a motley crew of colourful characters as they’re caught up in a madcap escapade. So it is with Mangrove Squeeze, with Aaron and Suki taking on plutonium smuggling Russian mafia aided by two philosopher vagrants, a retired mafiosa, and Aaron’s dementia suffering inventor father. The result is a tightly told tale that rattles along at a fair clip. There’s no major surprises and it’s all a little predictable, but nonetheless it’s enjoyable jaunt, made-so, I feel, by its engaging assemble of well drawn actors and their interactions. And there are some genuinely amusing moments, especially Fred and Piney ruminating on life, the universe, and whatever else comes to mind.
