Short and sour. 1 of 10 stars

Good, fast read and it's impossible to tell where Montalbano turns the typewriter over to Carl Hiassen.

‘Trap Line' by Bill Montalbano and Carl Hiaasen is a good crime thriller. It was published in 1982, but I doubt the culture of the Florida Keys has changed very much from how it is presented in the novel. However, there is no satire in this story which experienced readers of books by Hiaasen have learned to expect! The writers have a different kind of tone in mind, a serious one. Lives are changed forever by bad people.I've copied the cover blurb below because it is an accurate description of th...

Hiaasen and his writing partner Montalbano bring readers to Key West, Florida, to experience how the fishing industry is struggling as they present the story of Breeze Albury. Breeze is actually a pretty good fishing boat captain, but like so many, he struggles to make ends meet. That is one reason why he took a risk and got involved with the local pot trade. It ended up with him doing some short time in the clink. Since coming out, he has focused on his fishing career and his son, an all-star b...

My first encounter with Hiaasen was Razor Girl, which I found to be thoroughly entertaining and very well written. So, when I came across this earlier work, I had a preconceived notion that though it might not be as humorous, it ought to be well crafted.I was right. Trap Line is a fine book, albeit one lacking in the zany humor for which the author seems well known (in his later works). Nevertheless, the characters are well drawn and interesting, the plot is acceptably constructed (though not pa...

While teeming with typical Hiaasen elements, Trap Line is a bit more hard-boiled and violent than his usual fair (one can presume this might be a result of the presence of Bill Montalbano, who shares co-authorship, but it's hard to tell where his prose begins and Hiaasen's ends). Some of the transitions are a little shaky, which leads to momentary bouts of confusion in terms of keeping some plot points and characters straight. Speaking on the latter, there's quite a few characters introduced thr...

Not Carl's usual tongue-in-cheek murder mystery/satire, but a straight-up crime drama. As such, it was just ho-hum. Rather pointless, unless you are really interested in the life of a fisherman in the Florida Keys.

Trap Line is the second novel that Carl Hiaasen and Bill Montalbano co-wrote. While it doesn't have the humour of his Skunk books,it is a very enjoyable read!

Slow burnIt started slow but kicked up when the character Auggie entered the picture (not that he was an amazing character— but that’s when the book came into its own). Not all of the things in the novel have aged well, but in a time capsule, they can be appreciated.

Who doesn’t love a book taking place in the Florida Keys with lawyers drugs and money? The authors’ create a great story loaded with a captain out for revenge after he loses his fishing traps. Highly recommend

This was published in 1982; Hiaasen wrote it with Bill Montalbano. It is not at all like Hiaasen's solo novels with laugh-out-loud lines and situations. It does have a complicated plot, very very bad guys, and somewhat suitable revenge upon most of them. However, it has some brutality and violence that would be objectionable to most readers, and is quite over the top on the testosterone scale - not that there's anything wrong with that! It's a worthy genre and sometimes I like it, just as I enjo...

I've read all of Carl Hiaasen's other books, so it was fun to look at a book he co-wrote 30 years ago. The authorial voice of his later work is certainly present, but the ridiculous hilarity of his villains—for which he is so well known today—is notably absent. What we're left with is a decent little thriller (albeit a comparatively humorless one), which ain't nothing to sneer at. An additional oddity: the little anti-gay slurs peppered throughout the text aren't necessarily distracting, but the...

Well crafted, but the Hiaasen humour I've come to know and love merely peeked out from a few characters. What I liked most about this was the length. What ever happened to the 250-280 page novel? The story wasn't lacking, and I wasn't left thinking: "gee, I wish there was another 100 pages of deep reflection and soul searching by the protagonist, or perhaps an increase in lengthy exposition to really make this book worthwhile."

I had not read a Carl Hiassen book for about 10:years until this one, and I was a bit hesitant because it was a co-write and I normally avoid those. I really enjoyed this book. It is well written, gallops along at a cracking pace, and has some nicely drawn characters. It has less of the black humour of many of the writers other work, I will not be leaving such a long gap before reading another one.

This book was a little different than the other books Hiaasen has written. It lacked a lot of the humor that his other books have; also the environmental aspect. But I still liked it a lot. It was a fun read. By the way, my favorite Hiaasen novel is "Skintight." If you like "Trap Line," check that book out. The heavy is a guy named "Chemo!"

A story of crime and entrapment and how quickly things can go wrong. A good mystery, with corruption, smuggling, and a flawed hero, trying to make the best of his life and take care of his son. This is an early Hiaasen, written with Bill Montalbano, and is more of a crime novel than his later works, but the development of quirky characters is still there. I enjoyed the book.

I couldn't believe I found a Carl Hiaasen book I hadn't read. It doesn't have as much wicked laugh-out-loud humor as his later more environmental books do, but it still had the twists & satisfying revenge.

I've always been a big Hiaasen fan but ignored these early collaborations with Bill Montalbano. Although they lack the dark humor and wacky characters that typify Hiaasen's solo work, the plot and characters are every bit as compelling as his later novels.

As one can see from my rating, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. But then, I’m a real sucker for stories about native Floridians at the end of the their heyday. I hadn’t expected, judging by the first book in this series, that the Hiaasen/Montalbano team would gel so well.

It is hard not to like a Carl Hiaasen book in my opinion. This one was very different from the others I have read - more serious than humorous, but a good read.

Key West is the locale for this Hiaasen story, with drug running, people smuggling, crooked local politicians and police...and of course ‘the good guy’...in this case, Breeze Albrey, a fisherman. Good, quick read and always fun to read stories based where one happens to be...

Not expected.I love everything Carl Hiaasen writes. My favorites involve the “Captain” as he likes to be called. This is a different genre but still wonderful.

An early book by Hiaasen and Montalbano. It shows promise, but lacks the punch of later books.

Not my favorite book by Carl Hiassen, but as usual he does give the reader many lessons about the Florida ecosystems and environments. This book covers fishing etiquette, and the politics that govern the commercialism of the Florida Keys. He also expounds on the underlying draw or tension to either get out of there for good or to stay on the rock. I realize that this was written in 1982 and that he co-authored it with Bill Montalbano. It certainly is not like his other books with kooky character...

Carl Hiaasen's 2nd title published with William Montalbano (1982); this is the first one I've read from their collaboration, and so it is the earliest Hiaasen book I've ever read. I can definitely see signs of greatness to come from his later work. Trap Line is a short but fast-paced tale of intrigue in the South Florida world of drugs, kidnapping, shootings, explosions, and romance. Not yet present are Hiaasen's more colorful characters (notably, Skink) nor his environmental awareness. Still, h...

I'm kind of amused at all the reviewers who don't realize this is early Hiaasen, when he was transitioning from crime columns to crime fiction and had not yet developed his unique voice. With one or two small exceptions, it's devoid of the wacky humor and larger-than-life characters that make his solo work so great; worse, it highlights the fact that, once you get past those, his plots aren't all that complex or even memorable. The satirical nature of his solo work more than compensates for thes...

One of the early (1982) thrillers from Miami Herald investigative journalist Carl Hiaasen, written in collaboration with William D Montalbono, and falling short of the uninhibited exuberance of Hiaasen’s later solo efforts.This one is more serious in tone, with fewer fantastically colourful amoral bastards on display. It concerns drug and people smugglers standing over local fisher folk and the belligerent reaction of the locals when the baddies just go too far.The lesson: don’t muck around with...

This book is about Breeze Albury, a fisherman in the Florida Keys, who runs afoul of a local criminal enterprise. They basically force him to import some drugs using his boat, but they set him up to get caught while other boats complete their deliveries without incident. Albury slides in deeper as their corrupt attorney gets him freed and Albury then is compelled to smuggle some folks into the USA from Columbia. Of course, he is also double crossed on this venture. After all of this, Albury stri...

Fast-paced and fun.

Trap Line - a review by Rosemary KennyA surprisingly good vintage/early Carl Hiaasen novel, that somehow had escaped my 'radar', while I've enjoyed what I thought were all his novels, until now.Trap Line is set in the 1980s Florida, which Hiaasen was clearly well-acquainted with, even then, setting out a fascinating world of corruption, lies, deceit, treachery and general skulduggery, are balanced by resourcefulness, integrity, community spirit and much more, in Hiaasen's collaboration with Bill...