Naked Came the Manatee

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Naked Came the Manatee
Author Dave Barry, Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard, Tananarive Due, etc.
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Mystery thriller Satirical Parody novel
Publisher Putnam
Publication date 1996
Media type Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages 201 pp
ISBN ISBN 978-0399141928

Naked Came the Manatee (ISBN 978-0399141928) is a mystery thriller parody novel published in 1996. It is composed of thirteen chapters, each written by a different Miami-area writer. It was originally published as a serial in the Miami Herald's Tropic magazine, one chapter per issue, and later published as a single novel. Its title is a reference to the literary hoax Naked Came the Stranger.

The plot involves three crime-fighting characters from three of the writers' previous, non-parody, mystery/thriller works coming together to help an elderly environmentalist and her granddaughter investigate the mystery behind a package delivered by a precocious Miami-area manatee named Booger. Dave Barry opens the novel in a spoof on Moby-Dick, with the line "Call me Booger..."

All proceeds from the novel were donated to charity.

The writers of the different chapters are:

  1. Dave Barry
  2. Les Standiford
  3. Paul Levine
  4. Edna Buchanan
  5. James W. Hall
  6. Carolina Hospital
  7. Evelyn Mayerson
  8. Tananarive Due
  9. Brian Antoni
  10. Vicki Hendricks
  11. John Dufresne
  12. Elmore Leonard
  13. Carl Hiaasen