Besides writing an award-winning column for thirty-five years for the MIAMI HERALD, Hiaasen is best known for his off-the-wall crime novels, all set in his native Florida, and all eighteen of which have made the New York Times Bestseller List (and several of which also made it to the big screen). But even some of his fans may not be aware that he has also written half a dozen books for younger readers -- and that the first one, _Hoot_, won a Newberry Medal. This latest one is aimed at adolescents and it’s a model of how to take teenage readers seriously.

The focus of the story is Valdez Jones VIII of Key West, fifteen years old and an eighth-generation Conch, descendant of a 19th-century Bahamian salvage diver -- a “wrecker” -- in the days before Scuba gear when freediving on storm-sunken ships was tough and dangerous work. Valdez, who’s kind of a loner, calls himself “Wrecker” in their honor and spends as much time as he can out fishing in his small motor skiff. But he also has a nightly job at the island’s graveyard cleaning iguana crap of a particular marble grave marker for an old gentleman who pays him fifty bucks a week to do it. Wrecker isn’t afraid of cemeteries, so it’s a good gig, especially since zoom-schooling during the pandemic gives him a pretty laid-back schedule. Plus, his Mom remarried a guy with money after his Dad left them to pursuit his dreams of country music fame, and now he’s living with his grown stepsister (who is in a wheelchair because of a drunk driver), and they get along well.

So, one afternoon, Wrecker is motoring back to harbor with a cooler full of snapper and yellowtail when he pauses to watch a fast-moving forty-foot power boat with four huge outboards ground itself heavily on a mud flat. (Idiots, he thinks, paying no attention to the warning markers). Being an astute kid, and a local, he knows probable smugglers when he sees them, but he tries unsuccessfully to tow them off anyway, and the leader of the men aboard, a stocky, older guy with a thick silver mustache, tosses him two hundred for his efforts.

And that’s his introduction to some very iffy guys he soon wishes he had never met. Silver Mustache comes across him (not accidentally) at the graveyard and begins paying him to keep an eye on another family, a new one, and then Wrecker finds their their power boat sunk after running into another warning marker, and he makes his first salvage dive -- but the plastic-wrapped packages he finds and makes off with five of aren’t drugs. And soon Wrecker is in way over his head, and so is Willi, his skateboarding not-quite girlfriend. How can he extricate both of them before they wind up in an unmarked grave like Silver Mustache’s other enemies?

Hiaasen respects his readers and doesn’t talk down to them, regardless of age, so this plot is not that different in content from his adult novels. There’s violence, but it’s non-explicit and kept in the background -- which might make it scarier -- and the language is somewhat (but not entirely) toned down. The humor is dry and Wrecker’s relationships with his plastic-surgery-obsessed mother, his absentee musician father, his not-a-bad-guy stepfather (who is convened the vaccine is a CIA plot until he contracts Covid), and his environmentalist stepsister, and the engaging Willi (“only a friend!”) are all very well handled, as they always are in Carl’s books. I recommend this not-long romp highly, and not just for younger renders. For that matter, any of Hiaasen’s books you pick up, including his nonfiction collections, will repay your time in spades.

I received a free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I had this red-flagged for immediate cataloging in my Baker & Taylor cart when I saw it on NetGalley, and I could not smash that request button fast enough! Hiaasen’s middle grade books have always been popular with my students - they love Hoot and Chomp. In spite of my love of south Florida, I inexplicably resisted the siren song of Hiaasen for years, but after reading Squirm for my social justice class, I changed my tune. Plus, this is set entirely in Key West, and that’s my jam.

Our protagonist is Valdez Jones VIII, but he’d rather be called Wrecker. He comes from a long line of them - wreckers are divers who explored shipwrecks for valuable cargo. And given the number of reefs off the Keys, wrecking used to be a pretty lucrative profession. These days, not so much, thanks to better sonar and channel markers and the like. But Wrecker loves the ocean and loves to be out on the water in his skiff. On one of his fishing trips, he runs across a group of clearly not-local rich dudes who’ve run aground in their fancy speedboat (he calls them “go-fasts”, which is just sort of charmingly quaint). It’s immediately suspicious that they don’t want him to call for help (his boat isn’t strong enough to tow them). In fact, they’re willing to pay him not to mention having seen them. But then he does keep seeing them…all over town. Eventually the leader - a guy he only ever knows as Silver Mustache - offers to hire him for a series of ever more dangerous jobs. And it’s not even that Wrecker wants the money (he finds several elaborate ways to get rid of it, in fact), but more that these dudes are seriously scary and seem to have no qualms about going after his family.

There’s the typical cast of Hiaasen quirky characters here - Wrecker’s father fancies himself a music star and has in fact left Florida for Nashville so he can become the next big thing (he writes a series of terrible rip off songs). His mother is obsessed with plastic surgery - to a ridiculous extent (she gets a Reese Witherspoon chin and Nicole Kidman eyes, for instance), and his stepfather is only interested in golf (which is weird because there’s like 1 golf course in Key West). Wrecker lives with his stepsister Suzanne, an activist trying to stop the massive cruise ships from docking in KW and ruining all the water and coral reefs. For his part, Wrecker spends each night in the cemetery, cleaning iguana poop off the grave of Sarah Riley, at the behest of her brother (since it’s clear he CAN get to the cemetery on his own, it’s not clear WHY he’s willing to pay Wreck 50 bucks a week to go and clean every night). He eventually runs into the creepy boat dudes in the cemetery and gets himself roped into another cleaning job - the tomb of Bendito Vachs. Silver Mustache thinks people might want to deface his good buddy’s grave, so Wreck needs to let him know if he finds anything more suspicious than iguana poop. It’s not long before this grave-watching morphs into different and more dangerous jobs, and it’s clear there’s something hidden in the tomb…and it’s probably not the body of Bendito Vachs.

We also have Wrecker’s friend Willi, his sometimes partner in crime. She runs hot and cold, occasionally ghosting him for days before showing up again unexpectedly. She does turn out to be instrumental in helping him carry out his final plan to take down Silver Mustache’s operation (which is wholly unbelievable, but, you know, it’s fun).

I really like that most of Hiaasen’s books have an environmentalism angle. Here it’s about protecting the water and the reefs. The story is set post-Covid…I’d guess *maybe* summer 2021? I know Florida reopened pretty early, but I also remember the Keys kinda did their own thing and just shut down the bridges. Either way, the big liners are returning, and Suzanne and her group Friend of Blue Waters are trying to get them out again. It’s an excellent criticism of the governor without ever name-dropping the little weasel - none of the actual residents of KW want the boats back (let’s be honest, there’s plenty of tourism down there even without cruise ships). I’d happily have spent more time on this particular fight than Wrecker’s not quite believable espionage. (When you’re reading a book like this, even though it’s technically realistic fiction, you just have to suspend disbelief - yes, a 14-year-old can totally get away with all of this)

What didn’t quite work was some shoehorned in stuff about the history of the KKK in Key West. There’s a scene early on where Wrecker sees a girl singing and crying at the grave of someone named Manuel Cabeza. Wrecker does his research and figures out Cabeza’s undeniably tragic story - the short version is that he was lynched by the KKK for daring to defy them. He obsesses a bit over finding the mystery singer, in between all of his detectiving. We do eventually find her, and learn her story, and while it’s definitely interesting - and as Wrecker himself says, it reminds us that even in a place known for free spirits and acceptance, hatred is sadly everywhere… it just doesn’t add much to THIS story. Lift it out and the story doesn’t lose all that much. There’s still plenty happening, and it feels like it’s given short shrift. I’d rather have put more focus onto it than just dropping it in as background noise.

Overall, it’s a fun story and it’s set in one of my favorite places (actually I kind of hate Key West, but I feel like I’d enjoy Wrecker’s more local version). Although I will admit I have never been to the cemetery (I do remember my mom talking about seeing the “I told you I was sick” tombstone though - it’s real!), I recognized almost all of the landmarks, which was fun. I feel like it would appeal to middle grade readers - it moves relatively quickly, and there’s some interesting local history thrown in.

No one writes like Carl Hiaasen! He is above all, my most favorite author. The way he tells a story, with his favorite subjects, is the BEST! I loved this YA books. Thank you to Net Galley and Alfred A. Knopf, publishing, for this fabulous egalley in return for an honest review. Buy this one for the kids!!! And yourself!

Wrecker was fun, smart, and engaging. I loved the sympathetic characters, hated the villians, and had mixed feelings about Wrecker's complicated parents. Set during the height of the COVID pandemic, the book handles the reality and uncertainty of the crisis well. Haiassen is, of course, masterful in his description of Florida coast culture and idiosyncrasies. The historical Key West context was perfect. Highly recommend, for teens and adults alike.

I love Hiassen's kids books. I'm used to them being written for older elementary kids, but this one definitely skewed a little more towards middle school and early high school. I still really liked it though, especially how he melded real parts of Key West history with the story. Including the early days of Covid will date the book and may turn some people off of reading it. The story was well paced, with multiple levels of intrigue between the mysterious girl at the cemetery, smugglers, and what will happen with cruise ships returning.

I’ve read many of Hiaasen’s novels, including several of his adult books, but Hoot still remains my favorite after all these years.

Hiaasen's teen books are set in Florida with an environmental issue compounded by crime and mystery. This Is the story of Wrecker, a high school kid, living on Key West. One day he is innocently drawn into a smuggling operation as he attempts to help fellow boaters who have carelessly caused their boat to run aground on a sandbar. The head guy on the boat, Wrecker calls Silver Mustache, throws him a can filled with money for his assistance. Well, he really hasn’t done anything to help as Wrecker’s boat motor was too small to free theirs from the sand. Is this hush money as to what Wrecker witnessed? Mustache, is a rather menacing and powerfully persuasive fellow. Feeling bound by the beer can money of five hundred dollars, Wrecker feels he must help the man by watching a grave vault in the Key West Cemetery. Then he finds himself the driver for Mustache.’s fancy speedboat. Wrecker is a bright kid and soon figures out that Mustache is smuggling and what it is he’s smuggling. Wrecker must go along with the plan and appear cooperative until all the pieces fall into place for a sting.

Wrecker is a bit of a loner, but it’s ok by him. He does have a new friend Willi who he met in high school. He is content to spend his days boating and fishing. He seems to have a genuinely kind heart, as he helps an old guy by keeping a relative’s grave free of iguana and poultry poop. Well the old guy does pay him to do this, but still it’s a pretty gross job.

Wrecker's family is a bit unconventional. Mom remarried, and is addicted to getting facial surgeries. Dad abandoned his family to try and make it big as a singer in Nashville. Now dad has decided to re-enter Wrecker’s life. Groan… Suzanne is his step-sister who is wheelchair bound due to a drunk driver. She provides Wrecker a home, while being an activist for environmental causes. Wrecker supports his sister in these endeavours.

I truly enjoyed the characters and how they evolved but the story is quite slow. Much of the story is spent in the cemetery, which is apparently a tourist destination for visitors to Key West. He has set this latest book during the Covid 19 pandemic, with a plot centered on civil rights and environmental issues.

The characters and mystery of this book make it a good addition to the middle school collection especially for those who enjoy the work of Haissen, but I don’t see it flying off the shelf.

I wanted to like this one more than I did. The smuggler story already seemed dated to me, as there isn't a lot of relevance anymore. Although I think we can all reflect back and remember when it was very, very relevant. So this could just be a me thing. I did enjoy the environmental aspect, as well as Manuel Cabeza's story. I wish the book had focused on those two storylines more. I did enjoy the characters and the dialogue. These will seem very familiar to those that have read Hiaasen's other books. While, in my opinion, this wasn't his strongest offering, it was still an enjoyable read. I think that those that have read his previous works will enjoy this one, as well as those that enjoy humorous mysteries.

I've always loved Carl Hiaasen and this book was a great addition to his ever-growing list of wonderful novels.

Wrecker is definitely more than he seems. Key West, boats, smuggling and strange happenings in the cemetery are all part of Wrecker. Loved the bits of history and the story as Wrecker gets pulled into something that he never wanted and found something else that he never knew he needed along the way.

Weird to read a story with the pandemic being involved when it still feels so new but this will be a beloved story soon! Wrecker is a character you can’t help but root for and the pirate theme that is in the background brings this story to the next level! Another must read by Carl Hiassen!

This is good ya environmental awareness novel. There is not a lot of depth to the story but has a fun mystery. The characters steal the show.

There's a lot about this book that I found annoying, but overall an engaging mystery that the middle grade crowd is sure to love.

Hiaasen's teen books are unique in that they have an adult vibe. You could replace the teen characters with adult characters and not need to change much. In this story, Wrecker, a high school kid, living on Key West, is inadvertently drawn into a smuggling operation when he attempts to free a boat from a sandbar. The leader, who he calls Silver Mustache, throws him a can filled with money. Now Wrecker is financially trapped. Mustache, a rather menacing and power wielding fellow, first elicits Wrecker's help watching a grave vault in the Key West Cemetery and then as the driver for his fancy speedboat. It doesn't take long for Wrecker to figure out what Mustache is smuggling. Wrecker must go along with the plan without blowing his cover until all the pieces fall into place for a takedown.

I wouldn't say Hiaasen is the best plot writer but his character development is great. I love Wrecker and his new friend Willi (a girl from high school). Wrecker is a bit of a loner, but he's ok with it. He has plenty to occupy his time boating and fishing. He has a genuinely kind heart, helping one of the old-timers keep a grave free of iguana poop. Willi is a bit mysterious like she's hiding something, but finds Wrecker's cemetery break-ins and water excursions irresistible. Both characters have a wit that creates fun conversations, especially their attempts to hide a budding romance. Wrecker's family is a bit odd. Mom remarried, always getting new facial surgeries. Absent dad trying to make it as a singer in Nashville, but deciding to re-enter the picture. Wheelchair bound stepsister, providing Wrecker a home, while fighting for environmental causes in her spare time.

Great characters, but the plot is pretty basic. WAY too much time is spent in the cemetery. I've been to Key West and yes, the cemetery is amazing, but come on. Hiaasen obviously loves Key West. Especially obvious because he goes to great lengths to name every major street in Key West with a few famous gravestones and eateries thrown in. However, in my opinion, he fails to really capture the essence of this island community. This is what happens when authors get too attached to the place. Most annoying of all is that he muddles up the main Covid 19 pandemic plot with both a civil rights and environmental subplot. It's like he was trying to throw every social issue of 2021 into this book. I found neither of those subplots interesting.

But still...the mystery, the great characters, the carefree vibe, the sneaking around, the villain who gets his due...I'll give it credit...even go so far as to call it a page turner.

Wrecker by Carl Hiaasen is a hilarious and action-packed adventure set in the wilds of Florida. The story follows Valdez Jones VIII, aka Wrecker, a middle-school student who comes from a long line of shipwreck salvagers. Wrecker stumbles upon a stranded speedboat while out on his own boat, and the men on the boat offer him money to keep quiet. But Wrecker's curiosity gets the best of him, and he soon finds himself embroiled in a dangerous plot involving smugglers, grave robbers, and pooping iguanas.

The characters in Wrecker are a highlight of the novel. Wrecker himself is a witty and resourceful protagonist, and his friend, Jibby, a self-proclaimed genius with a penchant for inventing odd gadgets, provides plenty of comic relief. The villains are suitably sinister, with their shady dealings and willingness to resort to violence to get what they want.

Hiaasen's writing is fast-paced and engaging, with plenty of twists and turns to keep readers on their toes. The Florida setting is vividly described, and readers will feel as if they are right in the middle of the action. The humor is also a standout element, with Hiaasen's trademark wit and sarcasm adding levity to even the most tense situations.

Overall, Wrecker is a highly entertaining read that will appeal to both young and old readers. It's a perfect book for anyone who loves a good adventure story with a healthy dose of humor.

Covid centered. Liberal propoganda. Read Hoot instead.

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to preview this book.