It starts like this: "A prosthetic leg with a Willie Nelson bumper sticker washed ashore on the beach, which meant it was Florida." But that was nothing in comparison with the empty corpse that was also found, the so-called Hollow Man, and the homicide detectives couldn't figure it out. And so begins Tim Dorsey's Pineapple Grenade: A Novel (Serge Storms), his 15th novel featuring his homicidal antihero Serge A. Storms.
This time Serge and his stoned-again (as usual) sidekick Coleman are in Miami, and Serge is out to save the day. There are carjackers afoot, doing what carjackers do when there are unsuspecting tourists on the road, and they are unimpressed with Serge's red cape, leotards, top with an "S" on the chest and helmet with the revolving red light. The carjackers quickly learn to be impressed, which may sound strange to those reading of Serge's crime-fighting antics at first. Regular followers will understand: "Everything's normal."
Weirdness ensues, fueled by pure financial greed, and Serge is either on the periphery of it or right in the middle, and there's a Secret Master Plan. But how can a Homeland Security Advisory red alert be redder than red?
The Summit of the Americas is about to take place, and Fernando Guzman, the president of Costa Gorda has some real issues facing him. As one would expect, Serge and Coleman quickly get caught up in a convoluted mess that bounces all over metro Miami, from the decrepit Royal Poinciana Hotel to Little Havana, and from Little Haiti to the areas around Miami's Metrozoo. Ever heard of the CIA's Operation Mongoose? Building 25 in that remote area had been sitting quiet for decades... until now.
There are TV news announcements throughout that help us follow Serge and Coleman, as they travel South Florida in a green and orange '68 Plymouth Road Runner. And everywhere they turn, more mayhem ensues, and some of it is downright hilarious.
This is author Tim Dorsey's 15th novel, from his first one, Florida Roadkill, a 1999 offering where we first meet the homicidal Serge A. Storms, he's been a favorite. His type of vigilante justice is unique and often uproariously funny. I've spent many a late night not being able to put them down over the years, and they're all mostly 5-star offerings.
The characters in Dorsey's novels make up so much of what transpires, and some are real people. They can range from cameo appearances by fellow Florida authors such as Carl Hiassen and Dave Barry, as we saw in Florida Roadkill, to Randy Wayne White, who shows up in a bar on Cabbage Key in Electric Barracuda, where Coleman insults him. Florida's oldest living ex-governor, Claude Kirk, was there in Nuclear Jellyfish, the author's 11th offering. And one of the more memorable personalities was Lucky Cole, the legendary Florida photographer who takes his own type of wildlife images in his outdoor studio near the Everglades.
There are plenty of unusual characters in Pineapple Grenade, and the author has a way with words when describing them. Look out for Felicia Carmen in this one... she's all "curves and hips and luscious red lips. A beauty mark. Long, curling black hair, designed to make any man swallow his tongue and spit out deepest secrets, which was her job." And is it possible that she could have any effect at all on Serge?
Others that became personal favorites were Orange Crush, Nuclear Jellyfish, and Gator A-Go-Go, all of which have Serge as the main character. Dorsey's 2011 narratives in Electric Barracuda are among his best, in this reader's subjective opinion.
New readers might find this a 3- or 4-star read, as there is so much that has occurred in Serge's past that might puzzle the newcomer who isn't used to the protagonist's unusual ways or the author's dark sense of humor. In that case, this reader suggests a start with Florida Roadkill, published in 1999 and the author's first. We meet Serge A. Storms and his sidekick Coleman, and this from the book says it best: "Serge's attention-deficit disorder was the first of many hyphens. Obsessive-compulsive, manic-depressive, anal-retentive, paranoid-schizophrenic."
For those who have read any of Dorsey's earlier works, this one is a 5-star read. It's a little different from some of the others, but delving into Serge's character in some interesting and somewhat surprising ways.
And is Sarah Palin really Serge's new pen pal? You'll have to read Pineapple Grenade to find out...
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2012
- Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2013
Top reviews from other countries
- John TannerReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 21, 2024
Another Adventure for Serge Storms and his side kick Coleman
