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– Kirkus Reviews (* starred review) “Subversive satirist and heir apparent to Carl Hiaasen…. Dáte writes with authority and surprising elegance.” — Washington Post “Imagine living in the world of George Orwell’s 1984, with Mickey Mouse serving as Big Brother…. Take this one along on your next trip to Orlando and read it while standing in line for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. It'll make you think twice before strapping in.” — Florida (Jacksonville) Times-Union “It's impossible to dislike a book with wiener-shooting cannons, bloodthirsty polar bear cubs and toothless female hockey players.” — Tampa Tribune “Biting and irreverent, Deep Water shows no mercy to hallowed tourist destinations or the environment at certain newspapers. Those deeply entrenched in those institutions, and who can't take a joke, won't find much to smile about in Deep Water. Everyone else should pull up a beach chair and enjoy.” — Orlando Sentinel “If the round-eared rodent has always seemed a tad bit too sinister to you, Deep Water is as effective as a hungry cat.” — St. Petersburg Times “Corporate America takes a beating in Dáte’s latest tale of free enterprise run amok and anyone familiar with Carl Hiaasen will recognize the caustic, over-the-top, sometimes slapstick fallout…. Dáte’s hero and heroine are eminently likeable, and his writing is crisp throughout.” – Publisher’s Weekly Hailed for his “hilarious satire” by The New York Times Book Review, the veteran Florida journalist returns with another dark comic masterpiece. Smokeout’s bitingly entertaining portrait of a misbehaving Florida state legislature drew raves for both its inventiveness and timeliness, and the Providence Journal declared, “Carl Hiaasen may have an heir apparent.” Now, Dáte takes out after another cherished state institution, and the results are every bit as subversive.
In the “ideal” designed community of Serenity, Florida, pride of the late theme-park king Waldo Whipple, things are far from ideal. The houses are listing, the regulations are onerous, the mayor is lecherous, and the occasional Wild Dominion animal has started turning up dead. Graffiti is sprouting in odd places – “Serenityites Arise!” and “WWWS: What Would Waldo Say?” – and when a reporter begins poking around, he quickly discovers that Waldo’s successors have a decidedly different vision for America’s Hometown – and if certain people don’t stop interfering with it, animals won’t be the only things that start turning up dead….
Filled with wicked humor and razor-sharp plotting, Deep Water is delightfully twisted – and maybe more plausible than any of us would like to think. S. V. Dáte has been a professional journalist for fifteen years, most of them in Florida, first for the Orlando Sentinel and then for The Palm Beach Post, where he is Tallahassee bureau chief. This is his fourth novel.
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“Uproariously
funny School-of-Carl-Hiaasen cautionary tale that delivers the one-two punch
Mickey Mouse has been begging for.”