Smokeout (Volume 2)

Florida politics are always good for a laugh, as plenty of caper writers from Carl Hiaasen to Laurence Shames can attest. S.V. Date aspires to that pantheon, but if Smokeout is his best effort, he has a way to go before he's included in that number. If this is satire, it doesn't go far or farcical enough, although it manages more than the requisite amount of snickering at small-time politicos and influence peddlers who owe their souls, such as they are, to powerful corporate interests.

In this case, the interest that's handing out the bribes and other largesse is Big Tobacco, in the person of one of the scuzziest CEOs in recent history--a fellow who will stop at nothing, including murder, to arrange the veto of a piece of legislation that could cost his industry gazillions. The lobbyists he's paid off to get the bill killed are equally awful, including one who plants a minicam in the ladies' john just for kicks. There are two white hats in this somewhat jumbled tale--a young woman lobbyist who abandons her ideals for a paycheck but sees the light just in time, and a woman legislator who turns out to be the book's most sympathetic character. The level of sexual innuendo to which every woman in the book is subjected makes one wonder if Date really hates the fair sex or has simply never heard of sexual harassment laws. --Jane Adams