Flush by Carl Hiaasen

Review by: Tanmay

Flush by Carl Hiaasen is a realistic fiction book. It is about the Underwood family living in the Keys in Florida. The story starts when Paine Underwood is in jail for sinking Dusty Muleman’s gambling boat the “Coral Queen”. He claims that Dusty Muleman has been dumping the “Coral Queen’s” holding tanks in the sea contaminating the water closing beaches and threatening animals’ lives. A ship’s holding tank is a tank that holds all the human waste on board. Dusty Muleman is dumping the ship’s tank in the ocean so he can save money instead of pumping into the tank on the shore and having the coast guard taking it way, even though he earns a few thousand dollars a night. Noah Underwood and his sister Abbey are trying to help their dad nail Dusty Muleman and try to make sure their mom doesn’t divorce their dad. Noah is a young boy maybe ten to twelve years old. His sister Abbey is about 8 to 9 years old. Noah and Abbey can work together nicely. Jasper Jr. Dusty’s son and his best friend Bull always bully Noah and his sister. Noah first tries to nail Dusty by going to Lice Peeking who used to work on the “Coral Queen” who has personally witnessed the holding tanks being dumped in the ocean. Noah asks if he could sign a document stating that he has witnessed the tanks being dumped in the ocean, for his father’s boat. But on the day Lice said he would come to the Underwood’s house with the document he mysteriously disappears with the jeep. His girl friend Shelly finds the jeep a few miles away with blood stains in the jeep. They believe Dust Muleman is connected to what happened to Lice Peeking. Since Shelly also wants revenge on Dusty she joins Noah and Abbey trying to turn Dusty in. Mean while Noah and Abbey’s father is out of jail since served his time and is put in house arrest. One night Abbey tries to nail Dusty by sneaking out at night through the window with the video camera gets on the boat hides and records Dusty dumping the ships waste in the ocean. But since the video camera is a bit old the night shot picture isn’t really the best kind so it turns out to be very blurry. The next plan Shelly, Noah and Abbey put together is “Operation Royal Flush”. Noah and Abbey buy 37 bottles of purple food coloring to flush in the toilets of the “Coral Queen”. Shelly gets a job as a bar tender on the ship so Noah and Shelly divide about half of the bottles of food coloring. Noah’s father is taken out of house arrest and Noah’s parents go to the movies and dinner to celebrate. Noah and Abbey leave the house and go to Noah’s friend Rado’s house and use his boat since he lives near the shore. The boat is a bit old so they take a little while to get to the marina and Noah sneaks on the ship and after the ship leaves he hides in the lavatory and starts flushing all the food coloring in the toilet. To assure complete privacy Shelly puts an “Out Of Order sign on the door. After he dumps the food coloring he escapes the lavatory and runs up to the top deck which. On the way he was chased by the watchmen, but when they catch him on the deck he tricks them and jumps off the side of the boat and yells “GERONIMO!” as loud as he can. That is when Abbey is supposed to come and rescue him. The rest of the bottles are emptied by Shelly in her toilet breaks. It takes a long time for Abbey to come and get him so he has to swim half of the trip back to the marina until finally Abbey shows up. Noah and Abbey are chased all the way back to the marina where they are caught. This mysterious pirate guy who seems to know Abbey and Noah saves them. This is when they flee the marina in the boat. Since the boat was old and in bad condition (which was the reason Abbey was late) it broke down and Abbey and Noah were stranded in the sea over night until they are found. The next day Noah calls the coast guard and reports the dye which is traced to the “Coral Queen”. Noah’s dad is rewarded 1,000 dollars from the coast guard but he has to use it for the damages to the “Coral Queen”. A few days later the “Coral Queen” which was shut down is back in business with a deal from the government. Noah’s dad gets mad and punches a door and fractures his knuckles. A day later the “Coral Queen” is burned and Noah’s dad is accused of burning it especially since he has casts around his hands so the detective thinks it was him. Noah’s mom then shows the hospital reports that he fractured his hands. Actually Dusty’s son had stolen some his dad’s cigars and beer so they went into a shed and he started to smoke one. His friend Bull was there at the time. Jasper had burst out coughing after he smoked the cigarette and threw it. Since there was a party that night for the reopening of the “Coral Queen” there was left over fireworks in the shed which lit because of the cigar and blew in the “Coral Queen”, burning it down. When Jasper and his friend Bull were asked what happened Jasper blamed it on Bull but Bull gave an explanation of exactly what had happened. I think Flush is a very interesting book that you can't put down at all. The timing of the events makes the book exciting. If I were to grade this book I would give it an A.