Fever Beach

A Novel

By: Carl Hiaasen

Narrated by: Will Damron

Another instant classic from Carl Hiaasen—laugh-out-loud funny, tackling the current chaotic and polarized American culture (following in the path of Squeeze Me), with two wonderful Hiaasen heroes

“The afternoon of September first, dishwater-gray and rainy, a man named Dale Figgo picked up a hitchhiker on Gus Grissom Boulevard in Tangelo Shores, Florida. The hitchhiker, who reminded Figgo of Danny DeVito, asked for a lift to the interstate. Figgo said he’d take him there after finishing an errand.”

Thus begins Fever Beach, with an errand that leads—in pure Hiaasen-style—into the depths of Florida at its most Floridian: a sun-soaked bastion of right-wing extremism, white power, greed, and corruption. Figgo, it turns out, is the only hate-monger ever to be kicked out of the Proud Boys for being too dumb and incompetent. On January 6, 2021 he thought he was defacing a statue of Ulysses S. Grant, but he wound up spreading feces all over a statue of James Zacharia George, a Civil War Confederate war leader.

Figgo's already messy life is about to get more complicated, thanks to two formidable adversaries. Viva Morales is a newly transplanted Floridian, a clever woman recently taken to the cleaners by her ex-husband, now working at the Mink Foundation, a supposedly philanthropic organization, and renting a room in Figgo’s apartment because there’s no place else she can afford. Twilly Spree has an anger management problem, especially when it comes to those who deface the environment, and way too many inherited millions of dollars. He's living alone a year after his dog died, two years after he sank a city councilman’s party barge, and three years after his divorce.

Viva and Twilly are plunged into a mystery—involving dark money and darker motives—they are determined to solve, and become entangled in a world populated by some of Hiaasen’s most outrageous characters: Claude and Electra Mink—billionaire philanthropists with way too much plastic surgery and a secret right-wing agenda—and Congressman Clure Boyette—who dreams of being Florida’s (and maybe America’s) most important politician. The only things standing in his way are his love for hookers and young girls, and his total lack of intelligence. We meet Noel Kristianson—a Scandinavian agnostic injured when Figgo thinks he’s a Jewish threat to humanity and runs him over with his car; Jonus Onus—Figgo’s partner in white power idiocy; and many, many more. Hiaasen ties them all together and delivers them to their appropriate fates, in his wildest and most entertaining novel to date.

©2025 Carl Hiaasen (P)2025 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Remember Twilly Spree? The independently wealthy sometime ecowarrior who appeared in Hiaasen’s Sick Puppy (2000), and Scat (2009)? He’s in this new book, too, which is one of many things the novel has going for it. It also has Dale Figgo, a right-wing nutcase who was too crazy for the Proud Boys; Viva Morales, who’s renting a room from Dale, and whose bosses, a pair of alleged philanthropists, are almost certainly up to no good; an ambitious and deeply corrupt congressman; Dale’s mom, who isn’t thrilled about what her son is doing with his life; and a bunch of other delightfully weird characters. There is a serious story to be told about right-wing conspiracists, corrupt politicians, and shady philanthropists, and Hiaasen is sort of telling that story, but mostly he’s making us laugh—and not polite little giggles, either. We’re talking giant belly laughs, embarrass-yourself-in-public spleen-busters. This could be his funniest book yet."—Booklist

Keeps getting better and better

Fun read! Enjoyed colorful characters and the poking fun of those easy led.
Full of laughs and surprises

Timely themes

Only someone buying into MAGA world not find this a funny book. I laughed out loud as is normal for books by this author.

If you love “The View” you’ll love this.

A must read/listen. Funny and colorful as ever. Carll has a masterful way of enticing the reader to follow his menagerie of ne’er do wells chapter after chapter and ultimately leaving the audience wanting to murder a health insurance executive . Luigi sure won’t have to worry about lawyers fees as long as ole CH can keep cranking out these hilarious romps!

Best EVER if you aren’t a……

This was just as funny as all Carl’s other books but this one hits home at the upside down world we are all living in not just Florida. Forever supporting his writing. ❤️❤️❤️

Just say’n.

That is M aking A holes G iant A holes in a nutshell. Just say’n.

I know of whom you speak. Nice job.

As a multi-generation native Floridian, I loved it. The only thing that would have made it better would be a narrator that spoke Floridian.

So funny and it nails the current climate of the far right....I laughed out loud.

Great satire

I loved this very funny book. Maybe his best and appropriately dedicated to Jimmy Buffett

Fantastic

One of my favorite authors and he did not disappoint. Witty and hilarious. I couldn’t stop listening and laughing. I highly recommend.

Funny

It was so very funny. It was also was very timely for the crazy world we live in.