Native Tongue was published by Knopf in 1991. Hiaasen’s third solo novel targets the theme park industry — specifically, a Disney-like operation called the Amazing Kingdom of Thrills, built on the edge of a mangrove ecosystem in the Florida Keys. The park’s owner, Francis X. Kingsbury (a mob informant in witness protection), has built his empire through fraud, bribery, and the destruction of wetlands.
The plot ignites when someone steals the park’s two blue-tongued mango voles — the last surviving pair of an endangered species. The theft threatens the park’s operating license (they exist partly as a conservation fig leaf). Kingsbury dispatches a sociopathic ex-con named Joe Winder to investigate, but Winder — an ex-journalist — begins to sympathize with the thieves.
Skink returns, living in the mangroves near the park, and the novel becomes a contest between corporate rapacity and ecological guerrilla warfare. Hiaasen was explicit about his target: the Amazing Kingdom is a composite of Disney World and the various marine parks that dot Florida, and Kingsbury represents the developers who have paved over the state while wrapping themselves in family-entertainment rhetoric.
Collecting Native Tongue
First edition (Knopf, New York, 1991): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $30–$80
- Signed first: $80–$200