An Evening with Carl Hiassen

Join us for an unforgettable evening with bestselling author Carl Hiaasen as he discusses his latest wild ride with Dean Nelson, Fever Beach. In true Carl Hiaasen fashion, the book kicks off with a rainy-day hitchhiker pickup and spirals into a hilarious, razor-sharp romp through Florida’s most absurd corners. It's a wild ride through greed, extremism, and botched schemes in the Sunshine State.

Hear Hiaasen speak about the inspiration behind the novel, his take on Florida’s strange and sensational underbelly, and more at one his first events for his latest book. A Q&A and book signing will follow the talk. 

This event is free and open to the public. Seating is first-come, first-served, subject to availability. Limited preferred seating is available with purchase of Fever Dream through Warwick's bookstore. Please visit https://www.warwicks.com/event/hiaasen-2025 or call the store at 858-454-0347 for more information. 

About Carl Hiassen

Carl Hiaasen was born and raised in a bizarre place called Florida, where he still lives. His books have been described as savagely funny, riotous, and cathartic. Oddly, they are beloved even by readers who’ve never set foot in the Sunshine State. A graduate of the University of Florida, at age 23 Hiaasen joined The Miami Herald as a city-desk reporter and went on to work for the newspaper’s weekly magazine and prize-winning investigations team.

He is the author of fourteen previous novels, including the bestsellers Squeeze Me, Razor Girl, Bad Monkey, Star Island, Nature Girl, Skinny Dip, Sick Puppy, and Lucky You, and six bestselling children’s books, Hoot, Flush, Scat, Chomp, Skink, and Squirm. His most recent work of nonfiction is Assume the Worst.

One of Hiaasen’s best-known novels, STRIP TEASE, was turned into a major motion picture starring Demi Moore and directed by Andrew Bergman. Apple TV+’s series based on BAD MONKEY, which is set in the Florida Keys and Bahamas, was released in 2024. The show stars Vince Vaughn and was developed by Ted Lasso co-creator Bill Lawrence.

About Fever Beach

"The afternoon of September first, dishwater-gray and rainy, a man named Dale Figgo picked up a hitchhiker on Gus Grissom Boulevard in Tangelo Shores, Florida. The hitchhiker, who reminded Figgo of Danny DeVito, asked for a lift to the interstate. Figgo said he'd take him there after finishing an errand."

Thus begins Fever Beach, with an errand that leads—in pure Hiaasen-style—into the depths of Florida at its most Floridian: a sun-soaked bastion of right-wing extremism, white power, greed, and corruption. Figgo, it turns out, is the only hate-monger ever to be kicked out of the Proud Boys for being too dumb and incompetent. On January 6, 2021 he thought he was defacing a statue of Ulysses S. Grant, but he wound up spreading feces all over a statue of James Zacharia George, a Civil War Confederate war leader.

Figgo's already messy life is about to get more complicated, thanks to two formidable adversaries. Viva Morales is a newly transplanted Floridian, a clever woman recently taken to the cleaners by her ex-husband, now working at the Mink Foundation, a supposedly philanthropic organization, and renting a room in Figgo's apartment because there's no place else she can afford. Twilly Spree has an anger management problem, especially when it comes to those who deface the environment, and way too many inherited millions of dollars. He's living alone a year after his dog died, two years after he sank a city councilman's party barge, and three years after his divorce.

Viva and Twilly are plunged into a mystery—involving dark money and darker motives—they are determined to solve, and become entangled in a world populated by some of Hiaasen's most outrageous characters: Claude and Electra Mink—billionaire philanthropists with way too much plastic surgery and a secret right-wing agenda—and Congressman Clure Boyette—who dreams of being Florida's (and maybe America's) most important politician.

The only things standing in his way are his love for hookers and young girls, and his total lack of intelligence. We meet Noel Kristianson—a Scandinavian agnostic injured when Figgo thinks he's a Jewish threat to humanity and runs him over with his car; Jonas Onus—Figgo's partner in white power idiocy; and many, many more. Hiaasen ties them all together and delivers them to their appropriate fates, in his wildest and most entertaining novel to date.

About Dean Nelson

Dean Nelson is the founder and director of the journalism program at Point Loma Nazarene University. He writes occasionally for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, San Diego Magazine, Westways, Sojourners, and several other national publications. He has won several awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for his reporting, and has written or co-written 14 books, including 2019’s Talk To Me: How To Ask Better Questions, Get Better Answers, and Interview Anyone Like a Pro. Nelson is a frequent speaker at writing workshops and retreats.

In addition to directing the PLNU journalism program, Nelson also hosts the annual Writer’s Symposium By The Sea, where prominent writers come to discuss the craft of writing.  He has a Ph.D. in journalism from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri at Columbia, and a bachelor’s degree in literature from MidAmerica Nazarene University in Kansas City.