Shelf Care: Let's Investigate Adaptations

Welcome to Shelf Care, where I review three books related by a theme. These aren't necessarily the latest releases, but are hopefully books you can't believe you missed.This column's theme: Lets Investigate Adaptations! Stories about poking at mysteries for fun and profit that have been filmed.A while back I’d done a column on investigators in fantasy worlds, and figured it was only fair to take a look at the inspiration for those novels – fictional detectives in the real-if-sometimes-improbable world. Further tying these books together, is that they’ve all been (or are going to be) adapted for the screen, so if you don’t want to commit to the book, or want to complain about liberties taken in the adaptation, you’ll want to read any of the following.So if you likeIll behaved primatesMysteries set in FloridaThe works of Dave Barry, Christopher Moore, Douglas Adams, or maybe Joseph HellerSmartass protagonists in ludicrous situationsYou might likeBad Monkey, by Carl HiaasenWhich you can viewAs an upcoming series on Apple TV, starring Vince Vaughn.OverviewFormer detective Andrew Yancy has been busted down to food inspector after an unfortunate incident with his girlfriend’s husband when an arm washed up on a beach raises some questions about it’s ex-owner really being as dead as the widow would like the insurance company to believe.Sample passage

Yancy walked over to the spec house and set up a Santeria shrine in the future living room. Improvising, he’d chosen a handmade doll of the warrior god Changó, and for sacrificial offerings included apples, tamales, copper pennies, a dead rooster collected on Simonton Street by Animal Control and a saucer of cat blood left over from a spaying performed by a veterinarian friend. These items were laid out upon a crude satanic pentagram that Yancy had drawn in red Krylon paint on Evan Shook’s floor slab. In the center he placed a rat skull, ominously marked with the numerals 666. Students of the occult would have discounted the scene as an amateurish juxtaposition of unconnected superstitions, but Yancy believed that maintaining cultural authenticity was less important than creating a vivid first impression for potential home buyers.

TakeawayThe Overview only gets in to the beginning of the improbabe-but-could-see-it-happening-in-Florida insanity as Yancy digs deeper in to the case. As those unfamiliar with it might imagine, Hiaasen’s writing has a strongly comedic bent, inviting comparisons to Dave Barry and Christopher Moore.Where Hiaasen really shines is in maintaining the novel’s action-comedy feel by neatly walking the line between ridiculous and believable to the reader both invested and entertained, delivering a plot with punchline logic that has the feel of a more grounded, but not nearly as British, Dirk Gently novel. Indeed, a sub plot with Yancy trying to discourage the building of a McMansion next door felt like some parts of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. So if you’re looking for something that veers in to ludicrous-but-still-believable comedy, Bad Monkey is worth a read.So if you likeBounty huntersCharacters who are in way over their headResourceful female charactersYou might likeOne for the Money: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet EvanovichWhich you can view As the 2012 film, starring Katherine Heigl.OverviewRecently laid off and totally unprepared for it Stephanie Plum finds work as a bounty hunter in her home town in Trenton, New Jersey.Sample passage

"Steph here wants to do some skip tracing," Connie said to Vinnie."No way. Too dangerous," Vinnie said. "Most of my agents used to be in security. And you have to know something about law enforcement.""I can learn about law enforcement," I told him."Learn about it first. Then come back.""I need the job now.""Not my problem."I figured it was time to get tough. "I'll make it your problem, Vinnie. I'll have a long talk with Lucille."Lucille was Vinnie's wife and the only woman in the burg who didn't know about Vinnie's addiction to kinky sex. Lucille had her eyes firmly closed, and it wasn't my place to pry them open. Of course, if she ever asked . . . that'd be a whole other ball game."You'd blackmail me? Your own cousin?""These are desperate times."He turned to Connie. "Give her a few civil cases. Stuff that involves telephone work.""I want this one," I said, pointing to the file on Connie's desk. "I want the $10,000 one.""Forget it. It's a murder. I should never have posted bail, but he was from the burg, and I felt sorry for his mother. Trust me, you don't need this kind of trouble."

TakeawayOne For the Money is a good beach read – well set up, quick pacing, interesting characters, bits of humor scattered throughout, and not overly complicated. The interesting twist here is Stephanie’s evolution as a character who starts in way over her head for the job she’s picked up. She’s not the ex-miltary, law enforcement type that can just kick ass first and ask questions later, but a woman who desperately needs a job and is continuously beset with real world problems, which leaves the reader pleased when she finds a way around, or through the obstacles life throws at her. Evanovich does a good job of dropping some clues along the way, so that when the plot takes a turn partway through, it is not entirely unexpected.If you happen to like this, you’re really in luck because apparently there are 27 more Stephanie Plum novels out there.So if you likeSmart ass investigatorsThinking your way out of a jamDialogue heavy booksComedy with dark elements that were maybe OK in the 70’s?You might likeFletch, by Gregory McDonaldWhich you can viewAs the 1985 film, starring Chevy Chase.OverviewUndercover reporter Fletch is so good at being undercover that a rich man wants Fletch to murder him.Sample passage

“This is I.M. Fletcher.”“Yes, Mr. Fletcher.”“I write for the News-Tribune.”“Oh.”“You are the financial editor, aren't you?”“Are you that shit who wrote that piece saying we are headed for a moneyless state?”“I did write something of the sort, yes.”“You're a shit.”“Thanks for buying the Sunday paper.”“I didn't. I read it Monday in the office.”“You see?”“What can I do for you, Fletcher?”“I need some information about a man named Stanwyk. W-Y-K.”“Alan Stanwyk?”“Yes.”The picture file on Fletch's desk was clearly of the man he had met yesterday. Alan Stanwyk in business suit, Alan Stanwyk in black tie, Alan Stanwyk in flight gear: Alan Stanwyk who wished to end his life—a murder mystery.

TakeawayHaving seen the 1985 movie adaptation with Chevy Chase, I really couldn’t stop picturing him as Fletch, as he completely encapsulated that whole smartass with a bit of bastard thrown in that is the titular character.What immediately struck me about McDonald’s writing is that this story is mostly told through dialogue. There’s very little set up for scenes, and when Fletch is thinking, it’s aloud in to a tape recorder. This allows McDonald to get in humor that’s more verbal than situational as Fletch goes around trying to figure out why he’s been hired to kill the guy that hired him.The mystery is very well laid out, and Fletch is a surprisingly competent investigator, who keeps the plot rolling by asking everybody questions for reasons that will ultimately become clear later. There are a few super dark elements in the story, which I’m not sure were set up as a counterpoint to the humor, or if it was just the sort of thing that could be done in the 70’s that would never fly today, but were certainly interesting enough to mention, or warn future readers about.If you happen to like Fletch, there’s a ton of other books featuring the character, and he’s been in at least three movies, so there’s more than enough Fletch to go around.So, what other books should be on this list? Leave your thoughts in the comments, and stay tuned for my next column.