2014; 307 pages. Book 17 (out of 25) in the Serge Storms
series. New Author? : No. Genres : Florida Crime Noir; Dark Comedy;
Stoner Humor; Beach Read. Overall
Rating : 8*/10.
Watch out, Floridians! You’ve always had lots of scammers trying to
steal your assets, but there’s a new bunch of them in town, and they’ve been
organized into a gang by a very savvy leader.
You’ve never faced *teams* of scammers before.
Watch out, scammers! Serge Storms has become aware of your
nefarious activities and has appointed himself your judge and executioner, with
the blessing and aid of his ally, the Private Investigator Mahoney. Serge has been meting out justice on you guys
for seventeen books now.
Watch out, Serge! The leader of the scammers has resources
you’ve never encountered before. He is capable of figuring out who you are, and arranging to have you eliminated. You’ve never faced such a clever opponent
before.
You and Coleman may have met
your match this time.
What’s To Like...
Tiger
Shrimp Tango follows Tim Dorsey’s standard formula for a Serge Storms saga: nasty swindlers ripping off gullible but
upstanding Florida citizens, Serge thinking up karmic ways to get rid of the
bad guys while each time technically leaving them a way out (which
the baddies never end up choosing)., and Coleman supplying
Cheech-&-Chong-ish sage advice as to the proper usage of drugs and
booze.
On top of that, there’s also lots
of witty dialogue by Serge, and all sorts of Florida-related cultural trivia, most of which sounds made-up but
all of which is factual. For example, the reader is introduced to a lady named Brownie Wise (c’mon now, who would name their daughter “Brownie”?),
who Serge claims invented and developed the concept of “Tupperware
Parties”. I looked her up in
Wikipedia, she was real, and she plied her trade in Florida.
Those who read this series for
Serge’s bizarre executions will be happy to know that no less than eight
baddies fall victim to his contraptions, although out of concern for spoilers,
we’ll refrain from giving any details. There's some science in the story too: the “build your own volcano” brought back junior high school science project
memories, while the “Mentos in an ice cube” trick was new to me. Also, I can thoroughly relate to Serge’s “self-check-out woes at the grocery store” ordeal.
I chuckled at the mention of
the old TV program The Ghost and Mrs. Muir; I
haven’t thought about that show in decades.
The use of a rotary phone and accessing the Yellow Pages were pleasant anachronisms,
and I was impressed that Tim Dorsey knows all about a chemical engineering
phenomenon called the “Venturi Effect”.
The ending is good, with a
nice little twist thrown in to save the day.
Serge gets fooled a couple of times leading up to it; I like stories
where the protagonist is fallible. All
the plot threads get tied up neatly. Tiger Shrimp Tango is both a
standalone novel and part of a series.
I’m not reading the series in order, and don’t think I’m missing much,
although there was an exception to that here.
See below.
Ratings…
Amazon:
4.6/5
based on 429 ratings and 253 reviews..
Goodreads: 3.95/5 based on 1,966
ratings and 246 reviews.
Excerpts...
Down on the street, people’s lives bounce
off one another like eight balls in Frankie’s billiard joint, until one of them
lands in the corner pocket of my office.
They pay two hundred clams up front to spill their guts about frame
jobs, missing identical twins and alimony.
Most of them stink up my oxygen with alibis that are as shaky as an
analogy that doesn’t fit.
But this next one was a broad. She knocked on my door like knuckles hitting
wood. I told her to have a seat and gave
her a hankie. She blew her nose like a
British ambulance, and her sob story had more twists than a dragon parade in
Chinatown. (loc. 70)
“Alfonso, Serge here. I need a favor … What do you mean you don’t
want that kind of trouble? … When has anything ever gone wrong? … That was just
that one time … Okay, twice … Okay, now that time I did not burn down your
warehouse … No, it was an electrical short from shoddy contractors … I did not
overload the circuits making a Tesla arc transmitter to create artificial
bursts of indoor lightning.” (loc.
2016)
Kindle Details…
Tiger
Shrimp Tango currently sells for $6.99 at Amazon. The other books in the series range in price
from $3.99 to $7.99, with the exception of the most recent book, Mermaid Confidential, which for now costs $14.99.
“You almost expect
to see people start farting Legos.” (loc. 971)
The quibbles are minor and
mostly cited for the benefit of any new readers to the series. There is lots of partaking of drugs and
alcohol, mostly courtesy of Serge’s trusty sidekick Coleman. There’s a fair amount of cussing (25 instances in the first 20%), one
roll-in-the-hay, and several allusions to doing it.
And perhaps most importantly, if you don’t like the concept of vigilante justice, do
NOT read any of the books in this series.
As mentioned above, there was
one plotline carried over, presumably from the previous book in the series, Riptide Ultra-Glide, which I haven’t read. Serge apparently loses a love interest in that book, Felicia, and her killer gets away. Serge settles up here, and it was just a very
minor distraction for me.
Lastly but leastly, the
dog dies.
If none of these quibbles
bother you, and if you’re looking for a “beach novel” type of story, featuring a
psychopathic anti-hero with a loyal-but-always-stoned sidekick, then Tiger Shrimp Tango, or any other book from this series will be
perfectly suited for you. Tim Dorsey
appears to churn a new book in the series, like clockwork, once a year, every year, and usually in January. He's been doing so since 1999 (the only exception being 2011, when he published a second one, but it was a Christmas special), and I don’t
think he has any intention of breaking that streak.
8 Stars. Speaking of Tupperware Parties (were we?), many, many years ago, quite by accident, I found myself attending one. While tripping on acid. Coleman would have been proud of me. The ladies there were very tolerant of my situation, and did their best to make me feel at home. Still, if you ever find yourself under a the influence of hallucinogens, I recommend avoiding Tupperware parties like the plague.
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