Swamp Story
A Novel
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4.1 • 119 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Pulitzer Prize–winning and New York Times bestselling author—and actual Florida Man—Dave Barry returns with a “hilariously funny” (Steve Martin) caper full of oddballs and more twists and turns than a snake slithering away from a gator.
Jesse Braddock is trapped in a tiny cabin deep in the Everglades with her infant daughter and her ex-boyfriend, a wannabe reality TV star who turned out to be a lot prettier on the outside than on the inside. Broke and desperate for a way out, Jesse stumbles across a long-lost treasure, which could solve all her problems—if she can figure out how to keep it. The problem is some very bad men are also looking for the treasure, and they know Jesse has it.
Meanwhile, Ken Bortle of Bortle Brothers Bait and Beer has hatched a scheme to lure tourists to his failing store by making viral videos of the “Everglades Melon Monster.” The Monster is, in fact, an unemployed alcoholic newspaperman named Phil wearing a Dora the Explorer costume head. Incredibly, this plan actually works, inspiring a horde of TikTokers to swarm into the swamp in search of the Monster at the same time villains are on the hunt for Jesse’s treasure. Amid this mayhem, a presidential hopeful arrives in the Everglades to start his campaign. Needless to say, it does not go as planned. In fact, nothing in this story goes as planned. This is, after all, Florida.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Humorist Dave Barry loves two things: stupid people doing stupid things and his adopted home state of Florida. This straight-up-bonkers novel combines the two for one whirlwind of hilariously absurd crime fiction. When new mother Jessie finds Confederate gold in the swamp where she’s stuck with her gorgeous idiot of a reality-TV-wannabe boyfriend, she accidentally sets off a chaotic chase that ends up involving kidnappers, a pair of dim-bulb brothers trying to save their failing bait shop, an alcoholic ex-newspaperman in a Dora the Explorer mask, hordes of online influencers…and a presidential candidate. Barry sets the plot speed to “high” and then breaks off the knob, filling every corner with another starry-eyed fool seeking fortune and fame. Swamp Story would make a great vacation read.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Crime fiction doesn't come much funnier than this Florida-set caper from Barry (Insane City), in which a lucky find precipitates a cascade of unexpected consequences. Jesse Braddock lives in the Everglades with Willa, her baby daughter, and Slater, Willa's deadbeat father. She has little hope for a better life until she stumbles on a cache of gold bars, supposedly a buried Confederate Army payroll shipment. But the treasure has already captured the interest of some ex-cons who plotted to find it during their time in prison. Meanwhile, the enterprising owner of a local beer and bait shop concocts a harebrained get-rich-quick scheme: he employs a down-on-his-luck journalist to don a Dora the Explorer costume and pretend to be the mythical Everglades Melon Monster so he can lure tourists to the area in search of it. That scheme results in an influx of visitors at the very moment Braddock hopes to evade the treasure-seekers and make off with her life-changing fortune. Barry conducts the hijinks like a maestro of comic suspense. Carl Hiaasen fans will be in heaven.
Customer Reviews
Florida. Lunacy. They go together, you know
It’s Dave Barry. It’s Florida. It’s Dave Barry writing about Florida lunacy. Because if you’re writing about Florida, you’re legally bound to write about lunacy.
So get to it.