Electric Barracuda

December 20, 2010
In Dorsey's madcap 13th novel featuring vigilante serial killer Serge A. Storms (after Gator A-Go-Go), Serge gets engaged in a scheme cooked up by his faithful sidekick, Coleman, who hopes to attract tourists to Florida by offering theme vacations: "My first theme vacation: the ‘tourist fugitive.' You come down here and pretend to be on the lam." Those on the gleefully maniacal Serge's trail include a conniving lawyer gulled into thinking Serge has the key to Al Capone's lost treasure, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement task force, and Serge's personal Javert, the obsessive, dubiously lucid but insightful Agent Mahoney. Dorsey cheerfully rejoices in Florida's colorful history and in the triumph of absurdity and anarchy over law and propriety. His police are no better than Keystone Kops, while tempering his deranged protagonist's taste for complex murder is Serge's unerring ability to select worthy targets. An unnecessary final revelation aside, series fans will be pleased.

December 15, 2010

Floridaphile vigilante Serge Storms (Gator A-Go-Go, 2010, etc.) dodges law-enforcement agents in the Everglades.

What better place than South Florida's lushly overgrown, gator-packed wilderness—known as a swamp but actually an immense, slow-moving river, Serge sagely points out—for a fugitive to hide out? And who better to lead a tour through Snook Haven, Gator Hook, the Loop Road (Al Capone's favorite hideout) and Cabbage Key than perennial fugitive Serge, who's so used to being on the run that he doesn't even notice the trail of federal agents, local law and freelance bounty hunters led by his nemesis Agent Mahoney? Instead of attending to them, Serge is planning his Fugitive Tour, billed on his website as the best way to experience Florida's least-known attractions, like the museum in remote Chokoloskee Island or the Rod and Gun in Everglades City, where guests stay in cottages to protect the dark-paneled main building from fire. Not even a surprise visit from his ex-wife Molly, who brings a 5-year-old tornado named Mikey who needs to bond with his dad, or his sidekick Coleman's need for frequent bar stops can slow Serge down. He barely has time to kill six bad guys—two playground-cruising pedophiles and four insurance execs gorging on bailout booty—while staying on the lam.

Despite the relatively low body count, Serge fans can revel in his increasingly arcane knowledge of Southern Florida lore as well as the cat-and-mouse thrills in Dorsey's lucky 13th.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 1, 2011
In Dorseys thirteenth Serge Storms novel, the manic spree-killer and Florida native son is off his meds again and building a website that encourages tourists to undertake fugitive vacations. Serge envisions midwestern families pretending to be on the lam and visiting remote, un-Disneyfied locales long favored by Florida outlaws. In pursuit is a police task force. The cops have finally tumbled to Serge as prime suspect in Floridas most grotesque murders. And the cops are followed by a number of mysterious civilians as well as the Doberman, a reality-TV bounty hunter with plummeting ratings. Once again, its a Smokey and the Bandit chase story, fueled by dangerous drugs; imaginative dispatchings of arrogant Wall Street plutocrats; beautiful, dangerous women; and Agent Mahoney, whose decade-long pursuit of Serge has reduced him to speaking in the hilarious, fractured argot of a pulp fiction shamus. Its Dorseys standard mash-up, bizarre and often very funny. His wonderful tour of Floridas boltholes might make them prime-tourist destinations, but fortunately, they are very difficult to reach.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)