Hiaasen, Barry, Dorsey. Florida’s Big 3. All writers of crime fiction variously described as zany, madcap, wacky, or simply humorous. Hiaasen has achieved the most renown, and Dorsey is (BY FAR) the most prolific. Barry remains best-known for his humorous non-fiction.

Swamp Story by Dave Barry, published 2023; 306 pages.

It has been something like two decades since I last attempted to read any Carl Hiaasen. I don’t recall which of his early novels I picked up, only that it did not engage my interest. Tim Dorsey, on the other hand, is like candy. Twenty-six novels featuring the same characters, and I have read every one over and over. On a whim, I picked up Swamp Story having not read any Barry in a similar two decades, and that a collection of humorous essays. I didn’t really have any expectations going in; I remembered Barry being an entertaining write of non-fiction, and this is set in south Florida. The ingredients are there, but can he put them together to cook up something fun?
In short, yes.
Swamp Story contains the expected south Florida elements. Stories of Confederate gold hidden and lost in the Everglades. Small-time criminals with big ambitions. International criminals with big ambitions and longer reach. Corrupt politicians. Dangerous wildlife interacting with knowledgeable locals and stupid tourists. Drugs. Lots of drugs. Scam artists. Shirtless men and beautiful women. Losers both lovable and not so much.
What Swamp Story has that some other chroniclers of south Florida lack is a certain degree of verisimilitude. While there are a few more cinematic passages, and more than a few outrageous coincidences, the main characters of the story are in fact wholly believable as people. And they have genuine…if limited…character development arcs. These characters are engaging, well-written, and this reader at least ended up caring about them enough to finish the book.
This is both in its favor and possibly to its detriment. In pursuing a realistic plot and characters, Barry perhaps kept himself from achieving the heights of comedy reached by Tim Dorsey – whose characters are impossibly broken and competent and lucky…and funny. Barry provides many chuckles, a few chortles, but not a single guffaw. And in the end that’s okay. The strength of the novel lies in its characters, rather than the celebration of south Florida’s legendary madness. Swamp Story is good; I did not feel cheated of the time I spent reading; but it’s not a book I expect to read again.


I feel that it is worth noting that all three writers – Hiaasen, Barry, and Dorsey – got their start in print journalism. But only Dorsey stuck to fiction as his primary style and source of income; both Hiaasen and Barry are better known for their humorous non-fiction and children’s books. Perhaps this is why both Hiaasen and Barry are slightly more “realistic” and rather less hilarious, zany, and madcap.