This book was one of the "$2.99 Kindle specials" that I get in my email every day. It looked interesting, but for some reason I was too cheap to spring for the two-ninety-nine so I did something that I should do more often: I got the book out of the library.
Take a crummy past-its-prime cruise ship, retro fitted and turned into a gambling ship that leaves the Florida coast every night and sails behind the three mile limit to suck money out of tourists and local suckers. Throw in a lousy house band, a down on her luck cocktail waitress, two hilarious senior citizens (picture Morty Seinfeld and Jack Klompus from "Seinfeld"), and assorted mobsters, drug runners, money launderers, and other only-in-Florida characters, put them on this tub of a ship and send it out into the Gulfstream as a tropical storm is raging - and a theme throughout the book is the hilarious dead-on over the top coverage that a local television news team provides during this weather "emergency" - and what you've got is a comic crime novel of classic proportions.
Keep in mind that this book was published in 2002, so some references may be dated. For example, with casinos now being so ubiquitous, who needs a ship that sails into international waters every night to be able to gamble? That's just nitpicking, though. It took me all of two days to read this one, and there were times where I was shrieking out loud with laughter. You probably would too!
Three Stars from The Grandstander.
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