S.G. Browne

Gator A-Go-Go is the twelfth novel by Tim Dorsey who, like Dave Barry and Carl Hiaasen, lives in Florida and has made his living satirizing the Sunshine State.  Dorsey’s novels are what you would probably consider crime capers, with lots of shady characters, drugs, violence, and a sociopathic anti-hero by the name of Serge Storms.

But really, that description doesn’t do Serge justice.  Most of the people he kills in the book deserve what they get, so he’s actually just dispensing his own sense of moral justice.  He’s also highly intelligent, obsessive, an expert on Florida’s history, and he comes up with highly creative ways of dispatching the villains – such as turning a garage door into a light activated guillotine.

In Gator A-Go-Go, Serge is off on spring back to make a documentary film with his trusty sidekick Coleman, a drug addict who knows how to keep beer cold on the beach without a cooler and how to make some awesome pot brownies.  Together, they attract a crowd of college kids who end up following them from one spring break location to another.

Along the way, Serge and Coleman get caught up in the middle of a manhunt that has the feds and a gang of vengeful drug dealers searching for the son of an outed Witness Protection Program informant, who just happens to be in Florida on spring break.

Part crime novel, part social satire, part history lesson, Gator A-Go-Go is a unique and fun read.  I’ll definitely be picking up one of Dorsey’s earlier novels to get acquainted with Serge and Coleman again.