The Riptide Ultra-Glide: A Novel (Serge Storms)
Serial killer and champion of all things Florida, Serge Storms is videotaping a reality TV show about his native state that he knows “will beat those Jersey Shore mooks like a gong.” He says this to his stoner sidekick, Coleman, as he tapes a pitched gun battle taking place on U.S. 1 between Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. Readers learn only later that the firefight was between gangs vying to control the supply of OxyContin to Kentucky. It’s a dark beginning to Dorsey’s latest (Pineapple Grenade, 2012) paean to the glories and charms of the Sunshine State. The author typically has Serge dispatching the state’s most vile residents in imaginative ways, but in this one, the gangsters who die do so in a hail of MAC-10 bullets. Serge must make do with offing two oafs who violate the unwritten etiquette of the beach and the ATM queue. Fans of the series will find some belly laughs and unlikely sightseeing ideas, but the chilling portrait of Florida’s pain-clinic “pill mills” may overwhelm the comedy for some readers. --Thomas Gaughan--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.