Baked

Miro Basinas is an experimental botanist who sells his rarefied product to a discerning clientele. Only Miro's not growing heirloom tomatoes or making organic wine-he's growing weed. And when Miro hits the big time by winning Amsterdam's famed Cannabis Cup, cannasseurs and ganjaficionados aren't the only people who want a piece of him and his mind-blowing pot that tastes like mangoes. A wickedly funny novel, Baked opens with a bang as Miro is cut down by a bullet. A mild-mannered hipster who doesn't know the first thing about revenge-or even who shot him-Miro is soon on a quest to recover his prize invention and to secure his place as the Floyd Zaiger (creator of the pluot) of weed. It's a journey packed with a delicious cast of characters, including a string-theory obsessed cop, a kinky paramedic, a Mormon missionary struggling to keep his "sap" under control in a city that is the personification of sex, a half-Irish-half-Salvadoran drug dealer and his dim-witted associates, a cougar starlet, and an entrepreneur who wants to turn his medical marijuana Compassion Centers into the Starbucks of pot. Baked is a hilarious, rip-roaring romp from a talented, utterly original novelist. "Although the plots of Smith's novels (including Moist, 2007) often read like the work of someone who is entirely baked, connoisseurs of absurdist humor will find him working at the top of his game here." -Booklist "As cockeyed and riotous as Carl Hiaasen on really good dope." -Kirkus Reviews "A wickedly funny . blast of a book . featuring a fast-moving multilayered plot, prose that has a smart, jazzy swing, and moments of shivery unease."-Richard Rayner, Los Angeles Times "Baked, Mark Haskell Smith's very funny fourth crime novel, tells a sprawling story . and it's quite a mix: a sweet love story, raunchy sex, outrageous behavior, and a couple of murders, all of it laced with plenty of profanity. In short, this irreverent gonzo crime novel is not for the faint of heart. But it's a great trip for the right reader." -Hallie Ephron, Boston Globe "If books came with MPAA ratings, Smith's fourth novel would definitely get an NC-17. . Rest assured that the novel contains plenty of drug references, drug use, and sexual content. But it's also a tightly plotted, well-paced caper with a message, A la Carl Hiaasen. . VERDICT Not for the easily offended or the president of your local D.A.R.E. chapter, but an enjoyable ride for the rest of us." -Library Journal "Connoisseurs of absurdist humor will find him working at the top of his game here."-Booklist