Rare is the writer who can make a reader laugh out loud. Carl Hiaasen's exceptional humor can tickle the funny bone like no other.

The only writer in my collection to repeatedly make me laugh out loud is Carl Hiaasen. Technically, he doesn't even belong in the collection - he doesn't write a series with a repeating character and his lead character is usually not a detective (though it was in his first novel). But somewhere along the line the words, "funny," "hilarious," "wacky," and "hysterical," kept popping up in descriptions and reviews of Hiaasen's books so I made an exception and started at the beginning of the series. Hiaasen's been writing fiction for over 20 years (he was a reporter before trying his hand at novels) and his first attempt - "Tourist Season" - came out in 1986. That was where I started.

Hiaasen is a master of the absurd - no one can take a "serious" matter like saving the environment and turn it into an exercise of comic relief quite like Carl Hiaasen can. Hiaasen's books take place in South Florida, a popular venue for writers, and the author is fixated on one idea - the unfortunate and tragic reality of the natural, beautiful landscape of the area being taken over and destroyed by "progress," construction, and civilization. Hiassen's characters are quixotic and determined, off-beat yet intelligent and they tilt at the windmills of the blind and clueless establishment, vexing and hand-tying them by the end of every book. This description does nothing to explain the sheer silliness and bizarreness of most of the scenes and plots of Hiaasen's books. They bomb along at an out-of-control pace, taking no prisoners, and leaving the reader shaking his or her head. The humor is not for everyone - too absurd for some and too gross for others - but beneath the insane scenarios, Hiaasen's stellar writing is the real basis of his fame and fortune. His books tend to be the same after a while - recycled plots and characters - but he can still get a giggle out of me every single time.