Dave Barry is one of those writers whose work I enjoy, even though he does start getting predictable after a while. I've read most of his books and I make it a habit of logging on to the Miami Herald Website each Sunday morning to read his column. Although I enjoy the collections of columns he puts out, he gets especially good when he focuses on a particular subject such as American History (Dave Barry Slept Here), computers (Dave Barry In Cyberspace) and even bad music (the lightweight Book Of Bad Songs).

A few years ago, Barry released a novel. When I heard about it I wasn't too sure if his attempt would be successful. Would his style of humor translate well to the fiction format?

The answer is: sort of.

Big Trouble, the novel in question, is a darkly comedic crime novel, set in Miami. It's a somewhat more lightweight version of the type of novel written by another well-known Florida humorist: Carl Hiaasen.

Like the Hiaasen novels, Big Trouble is centered more on the characters and dialogue than the plot. First off, for characters we have two Russian mobsters who own a bar that doesn't get much business and is a front for their weapons smuggling. There's a recently divorced man who runs a failing ad agency. There's his teenage son and the girl he sort of has a crush on. There's the girl's alcoholic father who's made it a habit of p!ssing off mobsters. There's two hitmen from New Jersey. And a couple of low life thugs. I know my description makes them seem rather drab. But read the book and you will soon see that they have their funny traits and quirks.

The dialogue is also good. It's especially funny in the first half, with references to a (fictitious) song called "Sex Pootie" and discussions about whether or not everyone in Miami owns a gun.

The plot is pretty hard to summarize. Let's just say that it involves a stolen atomic bomb that looks like a kitchen appliance, a high school game called "Killer" that features Super Soakers, a vagrant who sleeps in a tree and two Miami cops, one smart, the other rather clueless (and horny).

The first half of the book is the best. That's where we're introduced to the characters and shown their good points and bad points. That makes it easy for us to tell where each one will fit in later on.

The second half isn't quite as strong. After a certain point, the story starts to run out of steam and the climax is more or less a standard action movie climax. It keeps you interested. But it's something of a let down from the earlier part of the book when the psycho father was babbling about a family dog that he thinks is Libby Dole reincarnated.

Overall, Dave Barry's first novel comes out better than you might think. He's a natural with characters and dialogue. Now if he can just work on making the story itself less lightweight, he might soon be able to rival Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard in the fiction department.

Recommended: Yes