About halfway through this book I thought “This is like reading an updated version of It;s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, but with everyone high on drugs and lots of killing – not just one guy ‘kicking the bucket.'” Then, some time later, I noticed a capsule review by the Denver Rocky Mountain News on the back of the book: “An updated version of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World told by an author who apparently learned his literary skills from Hunter S. Thompson.” I guess my thinking was pretty much in line with some others.
This is one crazy book and is just the first of a series – 25 at the present time – of crazy books featuring Serge Storms, a sociopathic killer who loves Florida and travels all around the state visiting historic sites and killing people in highly imaginative ways (e.g., injecting Fix-a-Flat into a victim’s lungs). It sounds grim, but the writing style is so light that it is like watching a crazed Harpo Marx dispatch people while playing the harp.
It is pointless to even attempt to summarize the plot. But let me list a few of the characters:
- A drugged-up stripper
- The CEO of a small fraudulent life-insurance company
- A orthodontist who engages Serge and a buddy to cut off 3 fingers so he can cash in on a $5M policy on his hands
- Two innocent buddies who get duped into absconding with that $5M
- Three biker enforcers who, for a time, protect residents of a mobile home partk from their predatory developer
- Four Ubekistanians who are the smallest known drug cartel in the world
All of these crazies come together, more or less, to make this book work. It is never dull. It may be hard to follow at times and difficult to believe most times. But never dull.
8 out of 10.