Double Whammy was published by Putnam in 1987. It introduced Skink — Clinton Tyree, a former Florida governor who went feral after being driven from office by developers, now living in the swamps and eating roadkill — who would become Hiaasen’s most beloved recurring character, appearing in seven subsequent novels.
R.J. Decker, a former newspaper photographer, is hired to prove that bass fishing tournaments on Lake Jesup are being rigged. The cheater turns out to be connected to Reverend Charles Weeb, a televangelist who runs the Outdoor Christian Network and whose empire depends on bass-tournament television ratings. The investigation spirals into murders, missing persons, body dumps in the Everglades, and a climax involving an artificially created hurricane.
Hiaasen used the bass fishing world to satirize the commercialization of nature — Florida’s lakes reduced to prize pools for sponsorship deals — while the televangelist subplot took aim at the era’s prosperity-gospel frauds. Skink represents the novel’s moral center: a man who loved Florida so much that its destruction literally drove him mad.
Collecting Double Whammy
First edition (Putnam, New York, 1987): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $60–$150
- Signed first: $150–$350