Hurricane Punch (Serge Storms Series #9)

Welcome to another typical summer in Florida, the season of the storms. Serge Storms.

That loveable, under-under-medicated dispenser of truth, justice, and trivia is back with a vengeance. And not a weirdness-laced moment too soon.

Agent Mahoney has picked up the scent. The obsessive criminal profiler is convinced there is no second killer. Then there's Coleman, whose triathlete approach to the sport of polyabuse binging just might derail the mission more than the entire police community put together. The pace picks up. Winds howl, TV reporters fly around the beach, and questions mount: Who's stalking Tampa Bay's most sensitive journalist? Do multiple orgasms improve storm tracking? Why is the feeding-tube guy so quiet? All of which ultimately leads to the most pressing question on everyone's new-millennium lips: What would Serge do?

Publishers Weekly

Wyman has a daunting assignment: finding the right voice for Dorsey's larger-than-life antihero, Serge A. Storms, a likable, certifiably insane serial killer who rarely stops talking long enough to breathe. Wyman settles on just the right combination of tones for the screwball sociopath's generally amusing rants against government, the media, marriage and ignorant cops. At first, Storms seems like just another motormouth Florida crime crazy, but Dorsey makes us move past his verbal diarrhea to the oddly honorable, moral, blissfully happy man who just happens to be a raving wacko. Wyman undercuts the character's in-your-face boorish nattering with a redemptive exuberance and a winning joy of life. He also has no trouble delineating supporting characters like a dazed and reluctant newspaper reporter; a dim, dogged federal agent on Storms's trail; a pompous news executive; several neurotic psychologists; and another serial killer in the area. The result may not be a masterwork of suspense-there's never a doubt that Storms will prevail against knife, gun or twister-but you couldn't ask for a funnier guide to the Sunshine State, with or without hurricane. Simultaneous release with the Morrow hardcover (Reviews, Dec. 11). (Feb.)

Tim Dorsey was a reporter and editor for the Tampa Tribune from 1987 to 1999 and is the author of ten previous novels: Florida Roadkill, Hammerhead Ranch Motel, Orange Crush, Triggerfish Twist, The Stingray Shuffle, Cadillac Beach, Torpedo Juice, The Big Bamboo, Hurricane Punch, and Atomic Lobster. He lives in Tampa, Florida.