Naked Came the Florida Man

Starred review from October 28, 2019
Bestseller Dorsey’s outstanding 23rd Serge Storms novel (after 2019’s No Sunscreen for the Dead) finds Serge, a serial killer with a warped moral streak, and his stoner buddy, Coleman, on a tour of Florida, visiting cemeteries around the state so that Serge can make rubbings of the tombstones of celebrities, including Mitzi, the dolphin who starred as Flipper in the 1960s TV series. Along the way, Serge indulges his desire to harm wrongdoers who are beyond the law’s reach by targeting a man who encourages animal cruelty and another who rips off impoverished elderly people. Dorsey builds suspense with a number of cryptic subplots, notably one set in 1928 centered on the discovery of three murder victims in the aftermath of a hurricane. Another one concerns a girl, desperate to join her high school football team, who’s found a hidden cache of rare coins. Dorsey keeps readers guessing about whether the disparate plot strands will connect. Serge’s sadistic methods aren’t for all tastes, but readers with an appetite for gallows humor will be sated. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber Assoc.

November 15, 2019
Veteran chaos magnet Serge A. Storms (No Sunscreen for the Dead, 2019, etc.) tours the gravesites of famous Floridians from Flipper to Zora Neale Hurston. Having done all in his power to amuse, confuse, and bamboozle those still living, Serge turns his attentions to the departed, dragging his best pal, Coleman, on a cemetery tour of the Sunshine State starting near mile marker 58 on Grassy Key, the marine life research center where America's most famous dolphin is laid to rest. As he wends his way northward, Serge faces the usual Florida challenges: A hurricane is bearing down on him, and an assortment of petty grifters keep on preying on the innocent, requiring Serge to stop periodically and mete out ingenious and increasingly gory punishments. Serge's greatest challenge, however, may come courtesy of pint-sized Chris, one of a squad of urchins who chase the jackrabbits flushed out when cane growers set their fields ablaze to clear the leaves and weeds just before harvest. Bullied by older classmates, scrawny Chris longs to develop enough speed chasing rabbits to join the high school football team and earn a college scholarship. But discovering a gold coin buried near a cane field suggests another option to finance Chris' dream. Too bad notorious shipwreck salvager Capt. Crack Nasty is also after the gold. As Dorsey weaves back and forth in time between Serge and Chris, patient readers can enjoy a well-anticipated jolt when their paths finally cross. Meantime, there's a treasure trove of trivia for Florida fans to savor. Enough mayhem to raise the dead and delight the living.

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November 1, 2019
As a hurricane wreaks havoc upon Florida, the never-more-aptly-named Serge A. Storms, Florida's most avid history buff (not to mention its most cheerful serial killer) is determined to finish his latest foray into the state's past: a tour of Florida's most notable cemeteries. Along the way, he rights wrongs in his own violently clever fashion and investigates a legendary story of a local bogeyman. Readers who have not yet met Mr. Storms are in for a real treat: he's one of contemporary fiction's most entertaining and idiosyncratic creations, a killer who believes he's only doing what's right, an amateur historian who gets almost unendurably thrilled about the tiniest historical fact concerning the state he loves. Dorsey, a former newspaperman, writes economically; the dialogue is sparse and frequently hilarious, and the narrative passages are as descriptive as they need to be but not a syllable more. A fine entry in this consistently strong series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2019

Touring Florida's graveyards with good buddy Colman, Serge A. Storms visits a forgotten mass grave holding the remains of African Americans killed by the Great Hurricane of 1928. When local children say they've been running from a boogeyman hiding out in the surrounding sugar field, Serge wonders if this could be the notorious Naked Florida Man. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

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