Star Island

July 5, 2010
The career of singer Cheryl Bunterman (aka Cherry Pye), who debuted with Jailbait Records at age 15, is foundering due to her lack of talent and indiscriminate appetite for drugs, booze, and sex in this outrageous, offbeat novel from Hiaasen (Nature Girl). Among those struggling to keep Cherry's career afloat are her mother, Janet Bunterman; producer Maury Lykes; and "undercover stunt double" Ann DeLusia, who will, say, mislead the press into thinking Cherry is out and about when she's really in rehab. Hiaasen has easy targets in misbehaving celebrity sightings, tabloid stalkings, and spin control experts, and he makes the most of them. Crooked real estate developer Jackie Sebago and paparazzo Bang Abbott, who plans to hitch his wagon to Cherry's star, add to the madcap fun. Mayhem follows after Bang kidnaps Ann instead of Cherry by mistake, and ex-Florida governor and eco-vigilante Clinton "Skink" Tyree, who was smitten with Ann after a chance encounter, rushes to her rescue. The torrent of pop culture barbs are bound to please Hiaasen's ardent fans. 500,000 first printing; 12-city author tour.

Starred review from July 1, 2010
Twentysomething pop star Cherry Pye has long been inclined toward bad behavior, whether its bedding dubious men or snorting copious lines of coke. Lucky for her, Pyes manager parents have hired a body double named Ann DeLusia to keep up appearances. For years, Ann has come to the rescue whenever the singer is too drunk or doped up to be seen in public. All goes along well until the day Ann is kidnapped by a deranged paparazzo (Is there any other kind?), and Cherrys beleaguered mom and dad must figure out a way to get her back without Cherry finding out. (The singer, it seems, has been kept in the dark about Ann, and they intend to keep it that way.) Meanwhile, Cherry has to contend with a new bodyguard named Chemo, whom Hiaasen fans will remember as the belligerent, weed-whacker-wielding ex-con from Skin Tight (1989). Also returning here is reader favorite Skink, the onetime Florida governor with a glass eye and an insatiable appetite for roadkill. Hiaasen, author of 11 previous crime novels and 3 best-selling childrens books, is at his gleeful best skewering the morally bankrupt. He has plenty to poke fun at here, from a reprehensible real-estate developer with an excruciating groin injury to twin publicists Botoxed within an inch of their lives. This is classic Hiaasendemented, hilarious, and utterly over the top.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)