Like Carl Hiaasen in Los Angeles. Slacker Bob, in a rut with his pathology lab job, gets involved with a Mexican drug gang after he’s kidnapped delivering an evidentiary severed arm to the police. He soon becomes a de facto member of the organization, asks to be called Roberto, meets and falls in love with a woman who may or may not be depicted in a tattoo on the arm.

There’s also another arm, belonging to a hapless cookbook author, who is snatched entering a masturbation clinic, run by Bob’s ex-girlfriend. This arm has to be tattooed to match the first arm and then detached from the cookbook guy, then delivered to the police.

There’s a lot going on, it’s funny and morbid, and Mark Haskell Smith pulls it all together admirably. ( )

I’m not much for reading about sex and violence these days so almost as soon as I picked up this book I was pretty sure it was going to end up in my did-not-finish pile. But then it started to get interesting and before I knew it I couldn’t put the damn thing down. ( )

What do a severed, tattooed arm, a gang of drug smugglers, and a guy named Bob who works at a morgue have in common? Quite a bit, actually. In the novel "Moist", Bob comes across a lone severed arm in one of the body bags from the morning delivery. On its own, a severed arm isn't that big of a deal, but the woman appearing in a tattoo on said arm -- of a woman resembling Frida Kahlo -- piques his interest. The next day, while en route to deliver the severed arm to the police, Bob is whacked over the head and thrown into a trunk by members of a Los Angeles drug ring who want that severed arm. In the ensuing days, Bob changes from unwilling kidnap victim to the sidekick of leader of the drug ring.

The story itself surprised me with just how funny it was. The characters each have a particular trait that the author plays up, and at first, I found it annoying. But as the story progresses, I liked that focus on one trait, like one of the meanest gang members making time to watch his "novelas", and seeing how it impacted the rest of the characters and the story itself. At times, I laughed out loud at this comedy of errors, shaking my head at the ridiculousness of the situations.

Though I felt the ending was a bit too unrealistic, I still recommend "Moist" if you want a quick, fun read. ( )

This was an entertaining read. The characters were hilarious and original, and the story moved along at a good pace. The only issue was the ending. Everything was building up to a huge confrontation, then it happened, then the story jumped into the future and told what happened to the characters, but seemed to skip over exactly how they got away from the confrontation. Overall I would recommend and I will look for other books from this author. ( )

Bob jobber ved dissekeringsbordet på et av Los Angeles´ patologilaboratorier. Han er underbetalt og forholdet til samboeren Maura, en onaniinstruktør, halter. En dag kommer det inn en avrevet arm med tatoveringer av en nydelig kvinne i en erotisk situasjon. Bob blir fullstendig betatt av kvinnen. Og han er besatt på å finne eieren av armen, slik at han kan komme i kontakt med kvinnen. Det skal snart vise seg at han ikke er den eneste som vil ha tak i armen eller eieren.

På vei til politiet for å avlevere det spesielle bevismaterialet, blir Bob kidnappet av meksikanske gangstere som vil ha tak i armen. Nå starter en intens jakt. Bob klarer med kløkt å unnslippe den sikre død ved å alliere seg med gangsterne.

Boka er full av grove voldsskildringer og beskrivelser av skruppelløse gangstere. Like fullt er dette først og fremst en fornøyelig bok, full av makaber og svart humor. Den kan faktisk minne litt om Carl Hiaasens bøker. ( )