Strip Tease was published by Knopf in 1993. Erin Grant is a former FBI clerk who lost custody of her daughter to her deadbeat ex-husband and now strips at the Eager Beaver club in Fort Lauderdale to pay her legal fees. When Congressman David Dilbeck — a sugar-industry puppet addicted to strip clubs — drunkenly assaults a customer in the club and a bouncer is killed in the ensuing chaos, Erin realizes she has leverage.
The novel spirals outward from this incident into a satirical anatomy of Florida political corruption: the sugar industry’s stranglehold on Everglades water policy, the complicity of elected officials, the role of campaign contributions in enabling environmental destruction. Dilbeck’s handlers will do anything — including multiple murders — to keep him in office because his vote protects billions in sugar subsidies.
The 1996 film adaptation starring Demi Moore was a commercial disappointment that stripped away the political satire, leaving only the titillation. Hiaasen was characteristically blunt about the result.
Collecting Strip Tease
First edition (Knopf, New York, 1993): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $20–$50
- Signed first: $60–$120