Speed Week

Set on Florida's Racing Riviera during ""Speed Week""--the celebrated annual running of the NASCAR Daytona 500--this zany hardcover debut by a veteran Florida journalist (Final Orbit) is an unabashed ripoff of fellow journalist Carl Hiaasen's razor-sharp spoofs on life among the high-rise condos and titty bars of South Florida. Here, the action turns on the plight of sleazy Nick Van Horne, middle-aged speedway heir, and his widowed stepmother, Joanna (one year his junior), who are scheming to build a Raceworld theme park on the beach. Nick's estranged wife, Barbie, a former nude poster girl now a self-styled bunny-hugger, is suing to stop them from defiling nesting grounds of endangered sea turtles. Stepmom gives Nick 50 Gs to have Barbie bumped off, but dimwitted Nick decides to find a cut-rate hitman. This ill-considered plan escalates into a Monty Python fiasco as Nick and his money-grubbing girlfriend try to contract a biker Neanderthal and a dopey beach bum pornographer. Factor in an opportunistic crystal-gazer, assorted pool-hustling babes in thong bikinis, a state legislator on the take and good-neighbor Nolin, a lawyer who has a voyeuristic fixation on long-nippled, long-legged Barbie. Date brazenly (but respectfully) pays tribute to the character of Skint, Hiaasen's memorable character, in the persona of chimerical Randall Romer, a former state attorney, ex-navy SEAL war hero who metamorphoses into an avenging crusader, using a trained mako shark named Bruce to exact retribution on eco-despoiling tourists. Taking on Hiaasen's domain is a bold move, and Date's version of dystopic Florida isn't as masterfully styled, though readers may enjoy the plentiful erotica and the antics of these goofy gold diggers. (May)