Blog From A Hermit Dot Com

I’ve only been reading “mystery” novels for about five years. One advantage of waiting so long to “discover” the genre, is now when find an author I like, I can go back and read all of his or her works. This is especially fun when the author writes series with recurring characters (common among mystery writers).  Among mysteries, I go for fascinating and unusual characters in a comical or uplifting milieu. I actively avoid works that over-emphasize the grim, grizzly or sadistic.

I’ve recently become a big fan of Carl Hiaasen.  Hiassen’s works actually surpass the mystery genre into just plain fun, satirical, contemporary fiction. I just finished Double Whammy, (c) 1987, a murder mystery with a background of (all things) pro-bass fishing tournaments.  As a result, I’ve decided to make Most Memorable Hermits (Real or Fictional) a recurring feature in this blog. Although Kaczynski and Thoreau made the list by default, my first official nominee is Hiaasen’s Skink.

Skink is a highly intelligent, good-looking, slightly wacko, radical environmentalist. He’s also a former governer of Florida who vanished mid-term and was never found. When we first meet Skink, his hermitage is a book-lined lakeside shack. (In later novels he lives in abandoned vehicles and even a dumpster, but somehow he always has room for his library.)  His favorite food is fresh roadkill – when he gets hungry, he’s off to the highway like you or I would stop by a supermarket. If you’re unfamiliar with him, give him a read. Believe it or not, he’s a very likable character.

Skink also appears in these Hiaasen books: Native Tongue, (c) 1991; Stormy Weather, (c) 1995; and Sick Puppy, (c) 2000.