By Anna Mundow

Carl Hiaasen's "Fever Beach" turns, like many of his novels, on the actions of a collection of enthusiastic, comically unfocused malcontents. In this case, it's a group called "Strokers for Liberty." Led by the dysfunctional Dale Figgo, they have to date achieved only acts of offensive idiocy; we meet Dale as he cruises a Florida subdivision tossing neo-Nazi leaflets onto the lawns of residents whom he presumes to be Jewish. Or liberals, or whatever. When he hits an enraged homeowner with his truck, the first of many slow-burning dramatic fuses is ignited. From then on, subplots detonate with the precision of a Fourth of July fireworks display.

A Florida congressman with mortifying sexual habits is bankrolled by a racist geriatric couple, under the guise of funding his "Wee Hammers" initiative. Who could object, after all, to kids in hard hats learning to build condos? But the congressman and his cute venture are part of a darker plot, which involves Dale and his cohorts, to disrupt an upcoming election that the greasy pol stands to lose. That's even more likely if the escort he frequents, a woman named Galaxy, releases some compromising photos of her client.

Like many of Mr. Hiaasen's female protagonists, Galaxy is a formidable opponent. The same is true of Dale's mother, a trained boxer who routinely clouts her son, and of Dale's tenant, Viva Morales, who plays a significant role in ruining the white supremacists' finest hour. The group has planned to storm an assisted-living facility, which makes perfect sense given Dale's singular acumen for regrettable schemes.

Mr. Hiaasen's eye for the absurd, like his ear for dialogue, is as sharp as ever. When Viva expresses doubts about having moved to Florida, her newfound confidant, Twilly Spree, responds, "You've got every right to be discouraged -- employers who might be murderers, a married suitor who's also a crooked politician, and a Hitler-worshipping landlord with his own armed mob of mental defectives." Twilly is a maverick ecological activist and avenging angel, and his courtship of Viva is one of the novel's delights. Thanks to their romance, "Fever Beach" even ends on a sweet note.

--Ms. Mundow is a writer in Massachusetts.

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