2002; 286 pages. Book 4 (out of 26) in the Serge Storms
series. New Author? : No. Genres : Florida Crime Noir; Dark Comedy;
Stoner Humor. Overall Rating : 8½*/10.
Well, there goes the neighborhood! Serge Storms and his stoner pal Coleman have
just rented a house of Triggerfish Lane.
And where those two weirdos go, mischief and mayhem always ensue.
To be fair, there are
plenty of odd people already there.
Like the guy that cuts his lawn with a pair of scissors. There’s a group of college students in
another house, whose partying far outstrips their studying. And there’s H. Ambrose Tarrington III, who
must be a billionaire with a name like that.
About the only “normal” people are the Davenports, who just moved here
to Tampa from Indiana due to the dad changing jobs.
They all have one thing in
common — each of them is renting their house
here on Triggerfish Lane. Someone’s been
buying up lots of houses on this street and turning them into rentals. That’s been driving the house prices down,
causing lots of longtime residents to sell before the home value plummets even
further. Which creates more rentals
for the unknown investor.
But that sounds like a
money-losing investment. Why would
anyone buy up homes that he knows will quickly go down in value?
What’s To Like...
Triggerfish
Twist is the fourth book in Tim Dorsey’s “Serge Storms” series. It’s my
12th read from that series, although I’m not reading them in any
particular order.
The book starts with the
Davenport family moving from Logansport, Indiana to Tampa, then breaks up into various
plotlines that follow the lives of people already living on Triggerfish Lane. Many of the plot threads interconnect, and
there’s an overarching one that details the antics of our psychopathic
protagonist, Serge, and his stoner buddy, Coleman. They are joined by Sharon, whose drug usage
puts even Coleman to shame. I don’t
recall her from any other books in this series, but I haven’t read Book Three
yet, Orange Crush, and suspect she was
introduced there.
As always, the story is set in
Florida, and also as always one of the sidelights is some self-improvement effort by Serge. Here, he decides it’s
time to give up his violent ways and learn to live the calm, respectable
lifestyle that he sees in his neighbors. Good luck with that, Serge.
Tim Dorsey packs the text with lots
of historical trivia, usually courtesy of Serge, and always
fascinating. Here we learn about things
like Levittown suburbs, Crispus Attucks, and how Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven hit song allegedly has the
phrase “pass the butter, Satan” in it
when you play it backwards. The author also manages to sneak 18 musical band references into the tale, along with
quoting several song lyrics. Take it
from me, his musical tastes are awesome.
Everything builds to an
over-the-top, exciting set of climaxes, with a couple of neat twists added to keep you on your toes. An Epilogue in a “whatever happened
to” format closes things out, which I thought was perfectly done.
Ratings…
Amazon:
4.4/5
based on 1,053 ratings and 179 reviews.
Goodreads: 4.11/5 based on 5,588
ratings and 375 reviews.
Excerpts...
“You ever get that weird feeling where you
see a car exactly like yours?” asked Jim.
“What do you mean?”
“You know—you’re not really paying
attention, daydreaming about stuff, and you see the same car coming the other
way. And for a split second you think
it’s your car, and maybe you’re inside it. But then who’s inside this car? Like a mirror universe thing. Know what I mean? Ever get that feeling?”
“We’re switching to decaf.” (loc. 1079)
Coleman stood at the dairy case and grabbed
an aerosol can of whipped cream. He
stuck the end in his mouth and sprayed.
For some reason, regular aerosol doesn’t work with whipped cream, and
they have to use nitrous oxide instead.
And, sitting of a grocery shelf, the laughing gas separates and rises to
the top of the cream.
“You again!” yelled the night manager. “I told you to stay out of my whipped cream!”
(loc. 3452)
Kindle Details…
Triggerfish
Twist currently sells for $5.49 at Amazon. The rest of the books in the series range in
price from $1.99 to $14.99.
Generally, the newer the book, the higher the price, although there are a couple of
exceptions.
“Bachelor number
three, if you could be any kind of cheese . . .” (loc. 3054)
There’s plenty of cussing in Triggerfish Twist.
I counted 17 instances in the first 10% of the book, which is about
normal for a Serge Storms tale. Thanks
to Coleman and Sharon, references to drugs run rampant, with mescaline, coke, and even ‘shrooms getting mentioned.
References to adult situations and anatomy are also plentiful. This is the norm for this series, and
contributes to its humor.
I only spotted two typos: Porches/Porsches and Simeon/Simian, and there were several
paragraph breaks in the middle of sentences.
Al]so, if one of the reasons you read Tim Dorsey’s books is for Serge’s
penchant for conceiving "exotic executions", there are a pair of those here. I think that's a bit below the usual amount;
but hey, Serge is trying to fit in with the rest of the quiet, middle-class neighborhood.
Overall, Triggerfish Twist is another fine
story in the Serge Storms series. The
pacing is fast, the humor and wit is abundant; the historical details are
interesting, and the storytelling is top-notch.
If you’re a veteran Tim Dorsey reader, Triggerfish Twist will not
disappoint. If you’re new to the series,
this is as good of a place to start as any, provided R-rated stuff doesn’t
offend you.
8½ Stars. One last thing. One of the main roadway links between Triggerfish Lane and Tampa is Dale Mabry Highway. What? You say you’ve never heard of Dale Mabry? Me neither. Wiki him; he’s real. I’dd also never heard of the titular “Triggerfish”. They’re real too, so wiki them as well. Just don’t go putting your hand in an aquarium full of triggerfish.
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