Atomic Lobster (Serge Storms, 10)

Every now and then I have to read a novel set in Florida. I don't usually do it back to back, but in this instance I had just finished James W. Hall's latest, Hell's Bay. If Hall can be said to be Carl Hiassen without the humor, then Dorsey is Carl Hiassen on steroids and with little regard for the ecology of the area. What he does have in abundance in a strange stable of interesting and zany characters which he manages to bundle together in sometimes mind bending adventures. Sometimes he lets his penchant for black humor get somewhat out of control. In this particular book, I would say he has the ingredients just about right. It is a waste of time to try and give a plot line to these books as I am not even sure I know exactly what it was. You just open the book, climb on and let the story unwind. This type of novel is not everyone's cup of tea, but if it is yours, this is a keeper.

I love the way Dorsey writes and this is his best yet. Serge is a great character, but its Dorsey's twisted sense of humor that made me stop writing and read his latest. Everyone needs a good laugh, and this book provides it. I live in the Florida Keys, and I swear I've met these characters!

It must be hard to keep doing this, book after book, but it doesn't show. Serge has no peer. There is no more endearing or enduring serial killer out there. Sure it's looney, but it has its own inner logic. I wish he could meet up with Skink (from Haiasson). That would be an adventure! Coleman would still have to ride shotgun though.

For Friends of Serge, Atomic Lobster has it all. From the first pages, the book rocks along the tracks threatening to careen out of control, but it never does. With multiple characters and subplots, Dorsey keeps it all together for those of us who may have lost a bit of grey matter along the way. I laughed out loud so much while I was reading this that people began looking a bit warily at me. A great read.

I've got a new hero! And a brand-new series to read! But I don't think most people are going to appreciate him as much as I do, or even be twisted enough to get the gonzo humor involved. Nor will most appreciate that hero's penchant for taking people toilet snorkeling when they disagree with him. His name is Serge A. Storms, and he's a spree killer. However, before you go thinking too terribly of him, I point out that Serge's victims are only evil people. He only kills the bad guys, and generally then only after being provoked or they don't take his first warning. He's manic depressive but tends to stay on the "up" side of life, which makes him an uncharacteristically happy kind of guy. Of course, being a spree killer and having a tendency to kill someone with plenty of malice but no real aforethought kind of limits the friends and romances he can have. Serge hangs with the lowlifes, like drug-bingeing Coleman in this novel (who is an absolute riot as well) and Rachel (a down-on-her-luck prostitute with a really serious drug jones). But Serge's heart is always in the right place, always willing to look after society and the environment and his friends. One of those friends puts in an appearance in this novel. Jim Davenport, the much heckled and timid mouse of a man, has been in previous novels - where he and Serge first struck up their "friendship." In this book, Jim gets menaced by Tex McGraw, a man Jim testified against ten years ago who has now gotten out of prison and plans to enact his revenge. He even has a list. The police know this because Tex said, "I've got a list." In addition to Serge, Coleman, and Jim, there are four older women who refer to themselves as the G-Unit. They're not big on sobriety or rules, and use their age as a catch-all defense against people who want to hold them accountable for what they've done. Tim Dorsey has written ten Serge books so far, and ATOMIC LOBSTER is the latest. You don't have to read the earlier books first. Feel free to dive right in with this one. I did. Then I bought earlier books and put them in my TBR pile because I gotta read more. Before turning to bestselling author, Dorsey was a newspaper writer down in Florida. It seems like a lot of our bestselling authors come from there (Dave Barry, Carl Hiaasen) or move there (Elmore Leonard), and they all end up with twisted senses of humor. I do know that Dorsey carves out a tract of macabre real estate that's completely his own. I had a bit of a struggle when I first started to read the book because it doesn't start out linearly. Dorsey seems to like to show you some results of actions you haven't read about yet, then double back and let you - in disbelief, I might add - watch how it all happened. And it isn't always what you think it's going to be. Describing the plot would be a pathetic waste of time. What there is, and it is incredibly thin, is so convoluted that I'd have to give away so much of the fun you have waiti