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.jpg) First edition | |
| Author | Carl Hiaasen |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Putnam |
Publication date | September 1989 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 319 pp |
| ISBN | 978-0-399-13489-0 |
| OCLC | 19511900 |
| 813/.54 20 | |
| LC Class | PS3558.I217 S57 1989 |
| Preceded by | Double Whammy |
| Followed by | Native Tongue |
Skin Tight is a novel byCarl Hiaasen. It focuses on a former detective for the FloridaState Attorney's office, who becomes the target of a murder plot by a corruptplastic surgeon.
Dr. Rudy Graveline, the director of the prestigious Whispering Palms Surgery Center inBal Harbour,Florida, is a complete fraud who has never been trained or certified incosmetic surgery. He has built his reputation through social connections and by taking credit for the work of his associates. On the rare occasions when Rudy himself performs surgery, something goes wrong. He has weathered numerousmalpractice complaints and investigations by the state, throughbribery and intimidation.
Rudy learns from his former nurse, Maggie Gonzalez, that aprivate investigator named Mick Stranahan is investigating the disappearance of college student Victoria Barletta, who Rudy accidentally killed during a botchednose job. Rudy decides to have Mick killed. In reality, Maggie has turnedwhistleblower and is planning to tell her story on thesensationalist talk showIn Your Face!, pointing to Mick to misdirect Rudy. The intended hit on Mick fails when he ambushes thehit man and impales him with the sword of a stuffedmarlin head.
Reynaldo Flemm, the host ofIn Your Face!, and his producer, Christina Marks, come toMiami looking for Maggie. Rudy approaches a disfigured felon namedBlondell Wayne Tatum ("Chemo"), who agrees to kill Mick in exchange for a discount on hisdermabrasion treatments. After Chemo tracks down Mick's vengeful ex-wife, Chloe, she eagerly guides him to Mick's house inStiltsville. However, when Chloe realizes that Chemo means to kill Mick as opposed to scaring him, the ensuing argument ends with Chemo drowning her. Chemo burns down an abandoned stilt house, assuming it is Mick's because of Chloe's incorrect directions.
The next day, DetectiveAl Garcia and Marine Patrol Officer Luis Cordova inform Mick that he is theprime suspect in Chloe's murder. When Mick tells them that someone is trying to kill him, they advise him to lie low. Instead, Mick confronts Rudy outside his clinic and warns him to desist, emphasizing his point by blowing up the doctor'sJaguar. Mick is visited by Christina, who had interviewed his old partner, Timmy Gavigan, and been told a detail from the Barletta case: Rudy's brother, George, is a tree trimmer. Mick deduces from this that awoodchipper was used to dispose of Barletta's body.
Chemo attacks Mick's house with asubmachine gun. After a shootout, he finds himself in the ocean and loses his hand to aGreat Barracuda, opting to attach a portableweed whacker to the stump instead of a conventionalprosthesis. Rudy has Chemo travel toNew York City to eliminate Maggie. However, when she tells him about Rudy's past, Chemo is mortified that he has entrusted his face to such a fraud and decides to help herblackmail Rudy with the knowledge about Barletta's death. Maggie has shot a videotaped confession for security, but Mick and Christina obtain a copy.
Returning to Miami, Mick delivers the video to Al before surviving another murder attempt, this time by a pair of corrupt detectives hired by a crooked county commissioner tied to Rudy. Yet again, Mick outfoxes them and lures them into a fatalbooby trap. Mick turns up the heat on Rudy by recruiting his brother-in-law, a personal injury lawyer named Kipper Garth, to sue him yet again for malpractice. He then confronts George, who tries to kill Mick and is shot dead by Al. Chemo and Maggiekidnap Christina, holding her hostage in exchange for Mick's copy of the video.
Reynaldo tries to crack the case himself by scheduling a nose job andabdominoplasty with Rudy, planning to conduct an ambush interview once the operation is done. The scheme fails when Rudy conducts the abdominoplasty first and puts Reynaldo undergeneral anesthesia. When a cameraman bursts into the operating room to start the interview, Rudy panics and accidentally stabs Reynaldo through the heart with aliposuctioncannula. With George dead and no option left but to flee the country, Rudy returns home to find that his girlfriend, actress Heather Chappell, has been kidnapped by Mick. Realizing they will never get paid until Mick is no longer a threat to Rudy, Chemo and Maggie join him to confront Mick at his house, taking Christina with them.
During the confrontation, Mick knocks out Chemo and Rudy, and sends Christina, Maggie and Heather back to the mainland. Mick then attempts to "jog" Rudy's memory of Barletta's death by "recreating" the circumstances of the botched nose job, with Rudy as the "patient." Scared, Rudy admits he accidentally killed Barletta, then got George to get rid of the body. He also confesses to hiring Chemo to kill Mick; Chemo is so alarmed at Mick learning his motive for taking the job that he kills Rudy. Mick ties up Chemo, calls the police and swims away. Al arrives and Chemo is arrested.
Chemo is convicted of murdering Chloe and Rudy and is sentenced to 17 years in prison. Maggie is convicted ofperjury andobstruction of justice and is killed in a riot at theDade County Stockade. Reynaldo's body is sent to a medical school onGuadeloupe to serve as aclinical teaching aid, whileIn Your Face! is cancelled following his disappearance. Barletta's parents receive a suitcase full of money, supposedly a gift from Rudy's estate. Christina takes a newspaper job in Miami and purchases a second-hand fishing boat.