Another of Hiaassen’s recurring fictional hermits is Mick Stranahan, a retired (as in “asked-to-leave”) investigator for the Florida Attorney General. A serial husband (six ex-wives) and loner, he lives in a stilt house on Florida’s Biscayne Bay 
and when that is destroyed by a hurricane, he becomes caretaker of a nearby, isolated island. Stranahan’s investigative skills come in handy in Hiassen’s books: Skin Tight, and Skinny Dip.
In his career as a professional investigative journalist and columnist for the Miami Herald, author Carl Hiaasen can obviously handle people and is apparently willing to ”mix-it up” with more than a few. To quote his website bio: “Since 1985 Hiaasen has been writing a regular column, which at one time or another has pissed off just about everybody in South Florida.”
But there’s something about the motivational and reactive accuracy of Hiaasen’s Skink and Stranahan that makes me suspect Hiaasen has a hermitic streak himself.
