Publishers Weekly
After skewering Big Tobacco (Smokeout) and the Disney empire (Deep Water), lefty journalist Date takes on Florida Republican election dramas past and present, vying with fellow Sunshine State satirists like Tim Dorsey and Carl Hiaasen in this thoroughly over-the-top novel of political intrigue. A gubernatorial candidate dies in what appears to be a fishing accident and is replaced by a former governor's son, Bub Billings, a George W.-like clown who "can't read a TelePrompTer" but surges ahead in the polls anyway. When the GOP bosses find out Bub has a mind of his own, particularly on environmental matters, he gets pushed off a yacht (appropriately named Soft Money) and is replaced by his envious, conniving younger brother, Percy. Murphy Moran, a down-on-his-luck political consultant enlisted by the Democrats to get incriminating photos of Bub frolicking with half-clad "Victory Hostesses" on the Soft Money, ends up fishing him out of the water instead. The two then piece together the convoluted GOP plot and try to get the information to the proper authorities. Other characters include the slatternly secretary of state, Clarissa Highstreet, a dead ringer for Katherine Harris; conflicted state finance director Toni Johnson, who helps Murphy and Bud by exposing some major GOP corruption; and eco-friendly vigilante Randy Romer. Along with the politicians, big business (especially a shady company called Petron), a gullible media and a clueless electorate get what's coming to them in this timely farce. Though at moments alarmingly sexist, it should have Michael Moore fans cackling with recognition and glee. (Oct. 14) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Once again, Date (Smokeout) has laid Florida politics low with a hilarious indictment of that state's electoral process and Republican Party. The plot, as one character says, "is nothin' more than Big, Dirty Oil lyin' and killin' to own the government of Florida." In Date's hands, it becomes the perfect combination of high drama and slapstick comedy, laced with enough truth and innuendo to make the reader think, "it could happen." Two brothers, Bub and Percy Billings, are poised to become Florida's next governor. After Bub wins the primaries, he reveals his stance on offshore drilling and conveniently disappears over the side of a yacht during a campaign fund-raiser. Percy is all too willing to "win one for Bub" until Bub reappears, very much alive and ready to get to the bottom of the fund-raising scandal that earned him the nomination. What ensues is a battle to the death, fought on the high seas, with a hurricane and a love story thrown in for good measure. Black Sunshine is a delicious tale of ambition gone awry and people who should know better, and no public library should be without it.-Thomas L. Kilpatrick, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Florida columnist and novelist Date (Deep Water, 2001, etc.) sends up the Bush election as two brothers vie to govern the state that gave us-well-Carl Hiaasen. Republicans aren't just the bad guys, they're the only guys in a gubernatorial election pitting Byron "Bub" Billings, the amiable, lawn-furniture manufacturing, cheerfully uninformed older son of a beloved governor against a weak democrat. The party turned to Bub after the much stronger candidate Spencer Tolliver, fishing alone, followed a catch to the bottom of the sound. But Bub is a great candidate. Voters love the way he grins when he has to admit ignorance-which is pretty dang often-and he's such a nice guy. In the background seething with jealousy is Bub's younger brother Percy, a policy wonk who studied when Bub was cutting classes to party but whom the late governor never much cottoned to. Percy is, alas, charmless. But he becomes the candidate when Bub falls overboard from the Republican party, party, party yacht, Soft Money, and is declared drowned. Not in the least dead, Bub is rescued hours later by political consultant Murphy Moran, who'd been sailing nearby hoping to snap a candid of Bub surrounded by the frisky, nearly nude campaign workers on Soft Money. The waterlogged Bub presents two surprises to the cynical Moran: he's truly likable, and he's pretty sure he was pushed. As Murphy and Bub bob about, Murphy's fax begins to spit tons of incriminating papers from GOP campaign HQ, where comely accountant Antoinette "Toni" Johnson has had it up to here with the sleaze orchestrated by party honcho Farber LaGrange. Murphy and Bub piece together the plot that sent Spencer Tolliver to the drink and Bub overboard. Percy'smove into Bub's shoes, an action declared constitutional by lethally nippled Secretary of State Clarissa Highstreet, was no accident. Over the top doesn't always mean hilarious.
