Product Description

JoLayne Lucks lives in a town infamous for its suspicious miracles, but she's still elated when her lottery numbers finally pay off big-$28 million, to be exact. And she has great plans for her fortune: to save a rare piece of Florida paradise from the bulldozers. Only one problem: There's another winning Lotto ticket, and the people who've got it just never learned how to share. When the two militia wannabes swipe JoLayne's ticket, she enlists an off-the-rails newspaperman to help her track down the trigger-happy creeps and their bewildered hostage, a Hooters waitress. Getting rich quick is never easy......

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63733 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

From Library Journal
JoLayne Lucks has one of two winning lottery tickets each worth a cool $14 million. She plans to spend it rescuing a local plot of swampland from a strip mall developer. The holders of the other winning ticket, however, are Bode Gazzer and his sidekick, Chubb, who want the whole $28 million. Afire with paramilitary fervor, Bode and Chubb need the cash to bankroll the start-up of the White Clarion Aryans before NATO takes over America with a handicapped parking sticker scam. They steal JoLayne's ticket, but before they can cash it she mounts a hot pursuit with the help of local journalist Tom Krome. As they chase Bode and Chubb through the swamps and sleazy dives, dodging bullets and local religious fanatics, Tom and JoLayne leave a wake of mayhem and hilarity. This is Hiaasen (Naked Came the Manatee, LJ 1/97) at his wacky best?a steamy amalgam of raunch, righteousness, and riotous laughs. Highly recommended.
-?Susan Gene Clifford, Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, Cal.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
As soon as an informative headnote warns that ``there is no approved dental use for WD-40,'' you can relax, knowing that you're in for several blissful hours in the hands of a master farceur whose subject this time is what passes in South Florida for providence. Even though she's confirmed the winning numbers on her Lotto ticket, placid veterinary assistant JoLayne Lucks refuses to give an interview to rolling-stone Register features writer Tom Krome. Hoping to rescue the turtles of Simmons Wood from mob-backed development by buying the parcel out of her half of the $28 million jackpot, she doesn't see any point in telling the world she's rich. Then, suddenly, she isn't, because the holder of the other winning ticket, halfwit white supremacist Bodean Gazzer, decides to double his own payout by heisting her ticket. Bode and his sidekick Chub have their own public-spirited vision for the prize: arming the White Rebel Brotherhood (membership 2 and growing) in preparation for the UN-sponsored invasion of the US via all those unused handicapped-parking spaces. Along with the obligatory romantic complications, Hiaasen provides an alarmingly comical parade of spiritual counterparts to the providential nostrum of the Florida lottery: the weeping fiberglass Madonna, the Road-Stain Jesus, the miraculous apostolic turtles who bring nirvana to the features editor sent to retrieve Krome after he takes off with JoLayne in pursuit of the Lotto thieves. Not even Hiaasen (Stormy Weather, 1995, etc.) can sustain this balancing act forever, and eventually it collapses like a house of cards. But for an impossibly long time, the whole wild sideshow seethes and boils with all the grinning vitality of a ``Have a Nice Day'' poster reimagined by Hieronymous Bosch. Just when you think Hiaasen can't outdo himself, he finds more lunatics who just happen to tap into your deepest fears about America. Makes you wonder. (First printing of 200,000; Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection/Quality Paperback Book Club selection) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
Everything from survivalist folly to religious fanaticism is lampooned with gusto; so are marriage, divorce, race relations, and Hooters restaurants. The sledgehammer wackiness never flags, but Lucky You is finally fatiguing. It's too obvious, too long, too smart-alecky, and way too desperate to please. -- Entertainment Weekly, Tom De Haven

Hiaasen writes witty dialogue that crackles, and his characters are eccentrically colorful. For the most part, he is able to keep all his balls in the air, though occasionally one drops and the plot flags.... But never mind. The trip is entertaining and worrisome enough to make you think twice before making that next trip down to Florida. -- The New York Times Book Review, Charles Salzberg

Customer Reviews

Better than the Reviews Here Would Indicate
Reading a Carl Hiaasen novel is somewhat of a guilty pleasure for me, as I am indirectly a target of many of Carl's jokes being a South Florida lawyer. However, whenever I am temporarily tired of heavy prose or detailed non-fiction and in the mood for a "quick fix", a page turner written with humor and a little suspense by an author who doesn't take himself too seriously , I pick up a novel by someone like Hiaasen or Kinky Friedman. You will not find the "young handsome hero gets chased by the CIA and/or FBI as he falls in love with the beautiful Supreme Court law clerk" nonsense of thrillers by Baldacci and Grisham, just some goofball characters giving Florida a bad name who ultimately get what's coming to them.

In Lucky You, the plot centers around a Lotto ticket stolen from a female African American veterinary assistant by two bizarre rascists, who envision forming a neo-Nazi militia with the extra 14 million bucks. The two hapless crooks, Bode Gazzer and Chub, have one 14 million dollar winning ticket of their own, but with taxes and extended payouts they assume 14 million will be insufficient for their grandiose plans, and thus they pilfer the other winning ticket.

Our heroine, ridiculously named JoLayne Lucks, is everything a character should be in Hiaasen's world - she loves nature, is kind to animals, and wants to use her winnings to buy a pristine plot of land and prevent some Mafia developers from bulldozing the whole thing for a tax-shelter shopping mall. She lives in tiny Grange, Florida, a city known for its religious "miracles" including the self-mutilated "stigmata" man, a lady who thinks a road stain of brake fluid depicts the face of Christ, and a shrine to the Blessed Virgin which, on command, emits tears. These tears, scented with cheap perfume, are operated surreptitiously through a hidden hydraulic pump. All of these scandalous gags are meant to fleece tourists, on holy pilgrimages, out of their modest earnings. The straight man in the novel, features writer Tom Krome, goes to Grange to write a story on the lottery winner Ms. Lucks and is inexplicably drawn into her efforts to get the ticket back from Chub and Gazzer.

As in all Hiaasen books, the slimy characters get what is coming to them, and for the most part the author keeps most of the balls in the air effectively, keeping the reader mildly interested in the sensational plot even though you knowingly suspend belief from page one. The book has its faults to be sure- I wish Hiaasen would not be so over the top with his names, like a lottery winner named "Lucks", and a neo-Nazi named "Gazzer." Also, I thought the actions of Sinclair, Krome's boss at the paper, should have been deleted by a sympathetic editor. Sinclair, trying his best to catch up with Tom Krome, heads to Grange where he proceeds to sit in a moat full of turtles (painted like religious figures) and utters nonsense babble in rapturous delirium. These passages, unlike most of the book, were difficult to read.

All in all, while Hiaasen will never be confused with F. Scott Fitzgerald or Henry James, he has written a very entertaining novel here with passages that were downright hilarious. Some here... have insisted that Lucky You is his worst novel, which still would not be that bad in my opinion. As for my own "ranking order," I certainly feel Lucky You was every bit as good as Strip Tease and Stormy Weather, maybe a spot below Native Tongue and Tourist Season, but who cares? Ranking them is like comparing different types of melon. If you like his style, you'll enjoy this novel. I give it 4 stars, and am glad I picked it up.

One of Hiassen's funniest

From time to time I recommend Hiassen's books to coworkers, friends, and family. A few have become fans like me, but many others end up giving the books back to me(looking a little uncomfortable as they do) and never look at me the same way again.

These people stop asking for my advice on reading material. Apparently, not everyone appreciates Hiassen's sense of humour.

I've read all of Hiaasen's books and consider Lucky You to be one of my favourites (Strip Tease, Stormy Weather, and Sick Puppy are the others). Hiaasen turns his outrage (in this case directed at land developers, religious scam artists, the newspaper business, and red neck militia wingnuts) into a hysterically bizarre novel about two militia wannabes who win the lottery, but decide that if they can find the owner of the other winning ticket, they can double their take.

Sure, the targets here are easy to take potshots at (racist morons with guns and religious zealots) but that doesn't mean it isn't funny to watch Hiassen open fire.

If you are looking for a nail biting suspense thriller, Lucky You probably won't do it for you. Hiassen may give readers a rollicking ride, but this zany plot with its collection of quirky characters won't satisfy anyone looking for a serious thriller. Lucky You won't leave you breathless with white-knuckled thrills, but you may laugh so hard you can't see through the tears.

Read this book if you like a little twisted humour with your crime fiction.

Don't read this book if you belong to a militia or have ever seen Jesus' face appear to you in a plate of mashed potatoes. There is a good chance that you won't appreciate Hiassen's unique brand of humour..

Half-hearted Hiaasen
I read this book and Hiaasen's Sick Puppy back-to-back. The styles are almost like two different writers. This particular book adds nothing to Carl Hiaasen's works that he has not done before. The plot really had some potential, but was never realized. The idea of ruthless lottery winners not being satisfied with winning only half the lottery is not that farfetched. But the characters, in typical Hiaasen style are out there, slightly resembling some people you could find in the real world. The hero and heroin share a strange attraction and team up to recover her stolen ticket from some not-ready-for-primetime militia leaders. In between these characters lie a group of people taking advantage of religious beliefs and so-called miracles. The typical Hiaasen trademarks are in here; something always seems to happen to someone's appendages and there are the cracks on the evil tourist industry in Florida. Unfortunately, the author almost seemed to be writing this half-heartedly. This book is light reading and moves pretty quick but for real humor, you should check out his other books.