Philip Horkman is a polite, responsible owner of a pet shop in New Jersey. He drives a Prius, moonlights as a referee for kids' soccer and his favorite movie is The Sound of Music. Jeffrey Peckerman, who lives in the same suburb, is a self-important, foul-mouthed forensic plumber who thinks he is the only "sane" person in the world. When an absurd, accidental encounter brings these two middle-class, middle-aged men together, things snowball until the two erroneously become worldwide fugitives by way of international waters.
It all starts when a lemur is stolen (in self-defense) from the pet shop, and Philip and Jeffrey, engaged a high-speed car chase, wind up on the George Washington Bridge, suddenly implicated in a suspected bomb plot. Mistaken for terrorists, the men have no choice but to go on the lam through New York City, ultimately escaping as stowaways on a clothing-optional Caribbean cruise. The duo's travels take more unexpected twists and turns from there.
Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel have written a testosterone-filled, high-jinks novel of over-the-top proportions. Their alternating first person point-of-view chapters--think The Odd Couple on steroids--propel the fast-paced action in this zany, everything-that-can-go-wrong-does, pseudo-thriller as Philip and Jeffrey go on to face death-defying adventures in Cuba, Africa, Yemen and China and encounter a host of madcap characters--up to and including Donald Trump. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines