Carl Hiassen, from Stefan Jovanovich
Carl Hiaasen has Dickens's eye for observation. Like the great Charles his politics are sentimentally Socialist (what else can be expected from a lifelong practicing journalist in an English-speaking democracy?), but the man can write.
The reviews have been unkind, but reading the first 40 pages of Star Island from an SFO gift shop copy had me laughing so loud that I had to buy chewing gum to be allowed to continue my stake-out and wait for Smelta to deliver the wife safely home.