Synopsis
Intelligent but sociopathic criminal Serge Storms meets up with heartless stripper Sharon Rhodes and brainless drug addict Seymore "Coleman" Bunsen, who become his travelling companions and partners in crime. After one of Sharon's customers, an oversexed orthodontist named George Veale, brags that his hands are insured for $5 million, Serge hatches a plan to defraud the insurance company and steal the entire settlement from Veale. The injury inflicted on Veale's hand (by a chainsaw) is grisly enough to convince the insurance company to pay out, but Veale panics, withdraws the entire amount from the bank, and hides the suitcase containing the cash in the trunk of a rental car being driven by two vacationing friends, Sean and David. Before Veale can retrieve the case, he is kidnapped by Serge and Co., who tie him up in a Cape Canaveral motel and kill him with an elaborate Rube Goldberg-type booby trap triggered by the vibrations of the nearby launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
Further complications arise when it is revealed that the insurance company is actually bankrupt of legitimate earnings, and the money paid to Veale was earmarked for delivery to a minor cocaine cartel. In a panic, the CEO of the company, Charles Saffron, details a private investigator and a series of bounty hunters to track down the suitcase, while himself evading a squad of enforcers sent by the cartel.
As they close in on the money, and already weary of the other's company, Serge and Sharon each separately decide to kill the other. Serge ambushes Sharon first, suffocating her by spraying liquid tire sealant down her throat. Later, the enforcers storm Serge and Coleman's hotel room in Key West, killing Coleman but missing Serge, who kills two of the three enforcers and escapes with a non-lethal gunshot wound. The last enforcer is killed by detective Susan Tchoupitoulas, who has been tracking Serge and Coleman. When Susan confronts Serge in the hotel's lobby, he recognizes her as the daughter of a Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputy whose life he saved thirteen years ago. Serge discards his own gun and walks out of the lobby, wagering (correctly) that Susan will not shoot an unarmed man.
A comic subplot deals with three bikeless bikers — Stinky, Ringworm and Cheese-Dick — who have been rejected from every biker group they have encountered and are on the down and out. They find an odd sort of niche as hired muscle in a retirement community, but are ultimately forced out by the community's owner, who wants the seniors kept as miserable as possible to extort money from them. The three bikers spend several days aboard a yacht on loan from the owner, but are marooned as soon as they have exhausted the engine's fuel (having no grasp of sailing or marine navigation). Stinky accidentally shoots Cheese-Dick with a flare gun while rummaging through the yacht's emergency gear, and a short while later, Ringworm and Stinky are both abducted by another boater, who ties them to cinder blocks and drowns them at sea.
A second, more serious subplot follows Sean and David, unaware of the $5 million in the trunk of their car, on their unsuccessful fishing trip to Key West, which includes stopping in Miami to watch the final game of the World Series. Saffron, believing he has finally found the drug money, follows them on their sight-seeing trip to Fort Jefferson, but all three of them are abducted by the same boater, who turns out to be Max Minimum, the disgraced manager of the retirement community, and secretly a perverted serial killer. Minimum pushes Saffron and Sean overboard, but David overpowers him with a head butt, causing Minimum to choke to death on the Barbie doll he had wedged in his mouth. Saffron drowns, but David deliberately tips himself and his cinder block overboard, managing to save both Sean and himself. After they return to Key West, Susan takes their statements, then treats them to dinner, where she and David develop an attraction to each other. They drive home, still unaware that the $5 million is concealed in the trunk of their car, or that Serge is still feverishly searching the county for them.
Johnny Vegas
Several of Dorsey's novels feature one or more failed attempts by his recurring character, Johnny Vegas, to finally lose his virginity. In this novel, Johnny regularly trolls the seaside parties of South Beach in a Cigarette boat whose colors mislead spectators into thinking it belongs to Dan Marino:
- Johnny lures a young college coed onto his boat and is close to having sex with her, when she sees a bloated corpse float up with a chain around his neck (later revealed to be that of either Stinky or Ringworm);
- While Serge, Coleman and Sharon are touring South Beach, Sharon hitches a ride on Johnny's boat, and offers to have sex with him, but they are interrupted when a miniature caiman, that Serge bought at a gift shop and Coleman mistakenly placed in their hotel's freezer, thaws out and bites her ankle ferociously. She blames Johnny for the snafu and re-joins Serge and Coleman.
Dennis Rickman is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Nigel Harman. He made his first appearance on 14 April 2003 at the funeral of his late mother, Paula, before going on to become one of the show's central protagonists from 1 May 2003 up until his last appearance in the episode broadcast on 30 December 2005, when the character was fatally stabbed at the start of the New Year Fireworks.
The Stingray Shuffle is Tim Dorsey's fifth novel, published in 2003. It is the fifth novel to feature criminal Serge A. Storms, and also concludes the story arc, begun in the first novel, Florida Roadkill, about Serge's pursuit of a briefcase containing $5 million.
Tim Dorsey is an American novelist. He is known for a series starring Serge A. Storms, a mentally disturbed vigilante antihero who rampages across Florida enforcing his own moral code against a variety of low-life criminals.
Serge A. Storms is the main fictional character in most of Tim Dorsey's novels. His name is a pun on storm surge. Most often described as "intense" in personality, he is a vagrant with a voracious intellect and an encyclopedic knowledge of Florida history, but prone to periods of "focus" that lead him to commit brutal - and often elaborately planned and staged - acts of violence.
Triggerfish Twist is a 2002 crime novel by Tim Dorsey, the fourth in his series featuring Serge A. Storms.
I Am the Cheese is a young adult novel by the American writer Robert Cormier, published in 1977.
Hammerhead Ranch Motel is a novel by Tim Dorsey published in 2000. It continues the story, started in Florida Roadkill, of blithe psychopath Serge A. Storms and his pursuit of five million dollars in cash hidden in the trunk of a car. The book is non-linear, with some scenes occurring at the same time chronologically but told out of order with later scenes.
Cadillac Beach is the sixth novel written by Tim Dorsey, published in 2004.
Torpedo Juice is Tim Dorsey's seventh novel, published in 2005. As with Dorsey's previous works, the main character is amateur Florida historian and serial killer Serge A. Storms.
The Big Bamboo is the eighth novel by Tim Dorsey featuring the sociopathic anti-hero Serge A. Storms. It was published in the US in March 2006 and May 2006 in the UK. The plotline follows Serge A. Storms as he follows his recent obsession of Hollywood and movies, in particular the movie The Punisher, which was shot on location in Florida. Serge travels to Hollywood to write a screenplay, something that Coleman, his constantly addled companion, is constantly interrupting with obnoxious and sometimes outrageous concerns.
Johnny Allen is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Billy Murray. He first appeared on 4 January 2005 and became the show's primary antagonist until the character was axed and killed off on 20 October 2006.
Clinton Tyree, a.k.a. Skink, is a fictional character who has appeared in several novels by Carl Hiaasen, beginning with Double Whammy in 1987. He is a former governor of Florida who suddenly abandoned his office to live in the wilderness, most often the Everglades and, later, the Florida Keys. Tyree is depicted as a skilled outdoorsman, a partaker of roadkill cuisine, and a fierce and slightly unhinged opponent of sprawl and overdevelopment in the state.
"Storm Warnings" is the tenth episode of the second season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by Ed Burns from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Rob Bailey. It originally aired on August 10, 2003.
"Time After Time" is the first episode of the third season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Ed Bianchi. It originally aired on September 19, 2004.
Hurricane Punch is a novel by Tim Dorsey published in 2007. It follows overly zealous serial killer Serge A. Storms, who is tracking hurricanes all over Florida.
The Last Coyote is the fourth novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch. It was first published in 1995 and the novel won the 1996 Dilys Award given by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.
Nuclear Jellyfish is the eleventh novel by American author Tim Dorsey. It was released January 25, 2009.
Roadkill cuisine is preparing and eating roadkill, animals hit by vehicles and found along roads.
Snuff is the 39th novel in the Discworld series, written by Terry Pratchett. It was published on 11 October 2011 in the United States, and 13 October 2011 in the United Kingdom. The book is the third-fastest-selling novel in the United Kingdom since records began, having sold over 55,000 copies in the first three days.
Lone Hero is a 2002 action film written and directed by Ken Sanzel. It tells of an actor in a Far West village who acts against bikers who held up the village's bar, and the actions that followed.
