by Brian Hodge
1991, Dell
A Tampa drug dealer gets his hands on a supply of Skullflush, a snortable green powder from South America that turns you into a were version of your spirit animal. He's opposed by our heroes: a dirtbag, his new girlfriend, and a warrior from an Amazon tribe trying to destroy the drug. Possibly the most Tampa any novel has ever been, the way Cloak and Dagger was with San Antonio.
Easily twice as long as it needed to be and doesn't get going until the last quarter, but fun once it gets started. Some wasted potential - it teases having a were-piranha mowing down DEA agents with a BAR and Uzi which doesn't come to pass and commits the unforgiveable sin of having an action sequence at an amusement park (Busch Gardens) without a sequence on an operating ride.
As with a lot of stuff of it's time it's more action than horror and had some cutesy one-liners, though not quite at Freddy levels. Something else about that period was the exaggerated efficacy of homemade weapons. A plastic bottle of rubbing alcohol will not explode like a grenade when lit on fire - believe me, I've tried.
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