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Tim Dorsey doesn't get a bad rap so much as an inaccurate one. His penchant for writing about the off-kilter residents of the State of Florida has led to comparisons with other authors who mine similar territory, which is unfair to everyone involved. Because a Dorsey novel is an experience worthy of its own classification.
All of his novels have featured, to varying degrees, a force of nature named Serge A. Storms. Storms is quite the character, a roiling, disruptive mass of mental illnesses, each of which is competing for attention and control, and all of which win the contest at one point or another. He maintains a running commentary out of his mouth and in his head, which is hysterically funny and requires that the reader pay close attention. Storms is also a serial killer, though for the most part his victims are people who will never be missed.
In HURRICANE PUNCH, Storms finds time to cut and cull some of the Gulf Coast's more obnoxious citizens from the herd --- using ingenious, innovative techniques --- even as he and Coleman, his faithful intoxicated companion, transverse Florida in the midst of the worst hurricane season ever. Coleman spends most of his time succumbing to the god of chemical toxins while Storms chases hurricanes, seeking to drive within the eye of each one, even as he is the subject of yet another manhunt conducted by the undaunted and unbowed Detective Mahoney, his constant and hapless nemesis. Storms has some competition in the mayhem department, however, as a mysterious and jealous serial killer vies with Storms for newspaper headline space.
There is a mystery here --- the identity of Storms's competitor is the puzzler --- but HURRICANE PUNCH is not so much a whodunit as it is a commentary, a snapshot of the underbelly of the Florida population, a demographic that is unacknowledged by the Florida Department of Tourism but nonetheless exists within a few miles of any beach in the state. As did John D. MacDonald in his brilliant Travis McGee series, Dorsey cannily documents a class of people at a particular time and place. Where McDonald utilized drama as his vehicle, however, Dorsey uses humor soaked in absurdity to illustrate and illuminate the women --- and men --- who didn't make the cut on the "Girls Gone Wild" videos.
But the underclass is hardly Dorsey's only target. Everyone from the President of the United States to the CEO of Dorsey's own publishing company is lampooned here --- not always accurately, but nonetheless unflinchingly and hilariously.
In addition to being the book's title, HURRICANE PUNCH is an apt description of Dorsey's work. He, like Storms, is a force of nature who will leave you howling.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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