Customer Reviews

Electric Barracuda: A Novel

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

With every new Serge book, I feel like I'm catching up with a long-lost psycho cousin. I am pretty sure I've read them all and I eagerly await each new arrival like an annual Christmas letter from the loony side of the family.

Serge A. Storms is a serial killer and the go-to guy for any and everything related to Florida history. If you like your antiheros a little on the far side of bizarre, you'll love Serge. All the ladies do!

Serge and his sidekick, the ever-baked Coleman, continue their adventures in this story, with Serge bringing his special kind of justice to the bad guys with the cops always hot on his trail. There are more zany antics and hysterical situations and a new surprise or two (a love child!) and of course, loads of Florida history.

Oh, and there's a bonus cocktail recipe -- The Electric Barracuda! I'm thinking most, if not all Dorsey's book titles would make for excellent cocktails (Stingray Shuffle, Gator A-Go-Go, Nuclear Jellyfish!!) and then presented as a collection in "Coleman's Cocktail Cookbook." How about it, Tim?

It's always a good time when I get a new Tim Dorsey novel featuring the exploits of Serge Storms and his trusty (but wasted) sidekick Coleman. A friend of mine loaned me his copy of Dorsey's latest.... Electric Barracuda. As usual, Serge and Coleman are racing around Florida for one of Serge's "projects", reliving the history of the Sunshine state and dispensing justice in rather unique and gruesome ways. Throw in a number of rather large surprises (more so than the normal weirdness that happens) and a major twist at the end, and Electric Barracuda is a wonderful addition to the Storms bibliography.

In this adventure, Serge is launching a new website and "tour" that promises to be like none other ever offered. He's starting the Fugitive Tour, racing around the state evading the law and learning about the less savory sides of Florida history. Given his encyclopedic knowledge of trivia, Serge has unique views of locations that haven't been afforded the importance that he attaches to them. For instance, if you didn't know that Capone had a residence in Florida, you'll know a lot more by the time Serge gets done. What adds to the surreal nature of the action is that while Serge and Coleman are staging escapes and evasions for the tour, they really *do* have a number of people hot on their trail to capture them. As Serge and Coleman go from place to place, they comment on the parade of law enforcement that seems to be after someone, but it doesn't dawn on them until the end that perhaps *they* are the primary target. And what's a Storms novel if there aren't a couple of unsavory types that violate his sense of fair play and decency? Serge dispenses his own form of retribution, usually involving death in strange ways. For instance, have you ever wondered what would happen to someone if they swallowed those little pills that dissolve in water and expand into animal shapes? LOTS and lots of those pills? It's... interesting.

As a fan of Dorsey, I loved the book. This one seemed to have even more Florida trivia and history than normal, and I found it fascinating. Someone new to the Storms experience would enjoy it, but they may lose a bit of the "nuance" of the characters. :) Still, Storms and Coleman never seem to disappoint when it comes to fun, and Electric Barracuda delivered on all counts for me.

Disclosure:

Obtained From: Friend

Payment: Loaned

One wonders which comes first: will the seemingly endless stream of Florida history, trivia, and minutia that Tim Dorsey liberally taps dry up, or does Dorsey's caffeine-infused frenetic writing finally collapse like a trailer park into a Florida sinkhole?

In case you're counting, I make "Electric Barracuda" the 13th in whack-job serial killer Serge Storms' frenzied excursions across Florida, this time as the dubious host of his latest brain child - the fugitive tour. From seedy motels to gator holes and through legendary dives, from races atop ancient Indian shell piles down to mangrove swamps of 10,000 islands and into the summer hang out of Al Capone, Dorsey's manic hero and his comatose sidekick slacker Coleman play a make believe game of life on the lam, while in that parallel universe known as normality, a motley band of cops and assorted jokers - federal agents, state cops, a TV bounty hunter, a mystery man and a redhead in a turquoise T-bird - follow in hot pursuit. From one cliff hanger to the next more outrageous than the last, Serge and Coleman unwittingly elude their pursuers, treating the reader to what arguably may be some of Dorsey's most interesting scraps and bits of Florida lore. From the afore-mentioned Capone and his mysterious Loop Road hang out to Myakka River State Park's "Deep Hole," there are mounds of fascinating - if dubiously useful- information in this little gem. Meanwhile, we're introduced to a "young Serge" who, combined with Serge and Coleman, works a lot like Charlie Sheen's "Two-and-a-Half Men" on a methamphetamine bender. "Electric Barracuda" also features a more-than-cameo appearance of real life Loop Road inhabitant Lucky Cole - you'll be Googling Lucky and his photos before you close it up and put this one back on the shelf.

Considering that there's never really enough mystery or storyline in Dorsey's writing to carry a fan base, he is unique in his ability to make an obsessively compelling read on the merits of an unrelenting pace of outlandish predicaments, despicably delicious methods for dispatching vigilanty-style justice to the dregs of humanity, and a fiendishly likable anti-hero cast against a backdrop of truly engaging local history and culture. For all his zaniness, Tim Dorsey is a clever and savvy observer of human nature, weaving witty observations and cynical black humor across the threads of Serge's mayhem.

So like most in life, Tim Dorsey is a treasure to be used in moderation - a wholly unique experience (like Florida) that is best taken in small doses. But go ahead and dive in - it's well worth the rush.

I've read every one of Tim Dorsey's book and have always looked forward to the next one, but Electric Barracuda really fell flat for me. Our anti-hero, Serge Storms, a sometimes loveable homicidal maniac, has decided the best way to get people to appreciate his beloved Florida is to offer "Chase vacations," in which you explore the backwaters and byways because you are attempting to elude law enforcement; after all, it has worked really well for Serge.

However, in Barracuda, whether Serge is torturing a child molester, dashing in and out of historic locales, or attempting to deal with the small -- and eerily similar -- child that has been foisted upon him, he seems tired, uninspired and rather flat, more desperately manic than desperate maniac.

The book deals mostly with places on the southwest side of the state, and it was kind of funny because we visited many of his "tourist attractions" while in Florida last spring, although I have to say we got a very different impression of many of them, which is probably good, for the most part!

I like what Dorsey has done, creating both biting social commentary and tremendous advocacy for the natural and historical wonders of his state. However, this book felt forced, the product of a deadline of some sort rather than of true passion.

Gotta love, the lovable serial killer, Serge A. Storms, he only kills people who need killin. Electric Barracuda is great, but better if you start from the beginning of the Dorsey series. You don't want to miss a thing.

If you've read any of this Florida reporter turned writer's books in the past, then you know what I mean. If you don't, then Tim Dorsey's novel Electric Barracuda is a good place to begin, and then you'll meet the human natural disaster Serge A. Storms, along with his frequently wasted sidekick Coleman, and observe the pandemonium begin. But let me start with a caveat: don't take this book to bed if you have a sleeping significant other by your side, because that person will be awakened by your laughter as you read many of the passages.

This one is a thriller interlaced with a travelogue, plus a Secret Master Plan, and it is all lunacy as Serge and Coleman bound around the Sunshine State imposing their particular form of vigilante justice upon some very unsavory characters. The Miami Beach buddies of Serge's grandfather, who had raised him, had their life savings wiped out all of a sudden. There's good reason to believe that it was no accident. Serge is just one step ahead of his adversary, Agent Mahoney, and a batch of Florida law enforcement officers while dragging along the chemically altered Coleman and, for awhile, a hyperactive kid who may (or may not) be his son. The ever-whacked Serge dreams up a theme vacation for his online blog audience, one where viewers can experience Florida through the eyes of a man on the run. Visualizing himself as David Janssen in the '60s TV series "The Fugitive," Serge stays a short step ahead of the law close and makes the chase more interesting by providing clues to his whereabouts on his blog... and it gets better as it moves on to its surprising conclusion right to the last page.

Dorsey's offering of this view of the underbelly of Florida, starting in Orlando, zigzagging to other points of interest and ending in the Everglades, is not one that their Department of Tourism would beam about. And that was what kept this former Florida resident glued to the pages of this book. This book, like the author's others, had real places that only a longtime Florida native or resident, or an adventurous tourist who traveled the back roads would be aware of, and some of them were surprising. There was Warm Mineral Springs, a pre-Disney attraction hosting the Fountain of Youth, and Cedar Key on the Gulf Coast. Things happen in such off-the-mainstream locations with their colorful names, some real and some a play on words. There's the Myakka River State Park, where the alligators roam free, and on Sanibel Island there is an encounter with a bungling bounty hunter by the name of Doberman. Get it? We journey with Serge for a visit with his son to Toys 'R Them, where Serge has a funny encounter with a librarian who is a single parent. They visit the Gator Hook Lodge on Loop Road off the Tamiami Trail, where Ervin Rouse played, the fiddler who had written "Orange Blossom Special" back in the 1930s.

Dorsey has fun with real-life characters, people he either knows well or is poking at in a rather sardonic way. Flashbacks to 1929, with Al Capone and the Santini brothers in the Everglades happen. Contemporary murder mystery writer Brad Meltzer gets in over his head in a swamp. Serge takes a trip to Smallwood's Store in Chokoloskee to eagerly re-enact the killing of Edgar J. Watson, in a nod to Peter Matthiessen's 2008 National Book Award Winner"Shadow Country." And fellow Florida author Randy Wayne White shows up in a bar on Cabbage Key, where Coleman insults him. Then there's the colorful and legendary Florida photographer Lucky Cole, whom Serge, Coleman and their entourage encounter on the Loop Road off the Tamiami Trail.

This reader thought how enlightening it might be to grab the Nikons with a few lenses, head down to Loop Road in the Everglades and join Lucky Cole for a few days of shooting his type of native wildlife. Tim Dorsey's writing does inspire creative thoughts.

This is his 13th novel, and over the years from his first one, Florida Roadkill, a 1999 offering where we initially encounter Serge A. Storms, he's been a favorite. I've read all of them, and they're all mostly 5-star offerings. Others that became personal favorites were Orange Crush, Nuclear Jellyfish, The Stingray Shuffle, and Gator A-Go-Go, all of which have Serge as the main character. And his newest is Pineapple Grenade, a new 2012 release that I'm waiting to read.

Dorsey's Electric Barracuda is fast-paced blend of fiction, farce, fact and dark humor. You never knew exactly what you're going to see next from Dorsey's characters and behind it all, there's a Crown Vic. Actually there are a number of them, along with the Electric Barracuda, so enjoy the ride.

* Somewhere in Cyberspace, 1/25/2012

I recently read Tim Dorsey's "Electric Barracuda". Great Book!! Since I have lived in South Florida most of my life, I have seen some of the places that are described in the book. Although I had been to Loop Road in the Everglades in the past, I had never been to Lucky's Place, which caught my interest in chapter Forty-two of Dorsey's book.

I convinced my husband to take a drive out to Loop Road to find Lucky's. Just 4 miles west of Everglades' Shark Valley, is the entrance of Loop Road which goes to Lucky's. Just about 7 miles past the entrance to the Loop you will see a red mailbox with Lucky written on it and you have arrived.

What a wonderful experience we had!! Lucky and his wife Maureen were such nice people and they welcome strangers as if they were long lost friends. Lucky's is like an oasis in the middle of the Everglades where people can get together on weekend afternoons and make new friends. We were told that people have visited from all over the world. Lucky is a professional photographer and has an outdoor "studio" called Natures Exotic Beauty Photography. Here, lovely ladies of all ages can purchase a photo session with the beautiful everglades as their background. Lucky's photographs are creative, unique and original and he has many displayed on the property.

What a wonderful place, wonderful people and a very cool experience.

Thanks to Tim Dorsey and his book for telling his readers about Lucky's Place.

Having been a fan of Tim's work since Florida Roadkill, as well as living in the Southwest Florida area that is the setting for his novels, I was anticipating a fantastic read in EB...and I was not disappointed! Fantastic story line set in my backyard! The highlight of this book was discovering that one of the characters, Lucky Cole (introduced during the final escape to the Loop Road) is a real life living legend! After finishing the book, I did a little research on Lucky and found that the location of his compound in the Everglades on the historic Loop Road is not only real, but Lucky is one of the most interesting and engaging individuals, as well as a wealth of information regarding the Loop! After communicating with Lucky and his lovely wife and true redhead, Maureen, our riding group, the DOG's took a ride from Snook Haven (location where Serge and Coleman wound up after escaping down the Myakka River) to Lucky and Maureens compound on the Loop Road! After a stop for lunch at Joanie's Blue Crab Cafe (who Lucky called to make sure they were ready for a pack of DOG's), we rolled into the compound to be welcomed with open arms by Lucky and Maureen. The beer was cold, the chili delicious and the conversation engaging to say the least! Lucky is one of the premier "nature" photographers in the country, and welcomes visitors to the compound most weekends when he is not shooting pictures.

After our visit, we invited Lucky to come up to Venice FL and tour the locations that are in Electic Barracuda. Lucky and Maureen came up with their bike and we showed them Myakka State Park, Snook Haven, Casey Key Tiki Bar and the DOG Pound! We had a blast in their company, and will be visiting the Compound for an overnight camping run (the compound is equipped for such adventures).

All in all, this was my favorite of the series, mostly because we are now connected with a character in a novel who is truly a living legend! See ya soon, Lucky Cole, my brother!

Serge and Coleman some how have continued to survive and circle my beloved home state of Florida on drug induced murderous rampages while spouting off random Florida factoids. As the books keep coming, the plots get more and more thin and credibility (or believability) takes a back seat.

Dorsey is excellent at writing a fast read that will make you giggle or snicker without investing much into the actual reading of the story. Very light in depth and plot but it is made up for to many of the readers by the overall zaniness of the whole thing. Serge A Storms is still plotting a scheme (a tour this time (again)) and he's killing people who deserve it, and he's dragging Coleman along for the ride... not that Coleman minds since he's high on anything that it's possible to get high on. (didn't he die in the first book? I must have missed a book explaining that one) familiar characters reappear and new characters add to the mix.

If you are a Dorsey fan, you'll love this no matter what.

I have always been sort of "eh" about his writing... a bit too over the top for me, but still an entertaining beach read.

Imagine a mash-up of MTV's iconic Beavis and Butthead meets gumshoe noir on a crazy trip through the set of Miami Vice (the Everglade years). This is one badass, non-stop thrill ride that will have you zigzagging all over the state of Florida. Who else can master dark comedy, crime thriller and state history better than Tim Dorsey? Electric Barracuda is a shining example of classic absurdist fiction. It focuses on the experiences of characters and their seemingly meaningless actions and events. By making use of dark humor, abasement of reason and bizarre philosophy, Dorsey opens a peep hole into American culture. The characters are amusing, fully-developed, inventive and most of all, the events are a fast-paced blast that will have the reader laughing until they weep (and then questioning whether the author was sober at any stage of the writing process). Of course, in this case, it's a good thing. An untamed ride ensues mingling past and present, which are in continual conflict. This instigates an appeal to the nature vs. nurture theory (I'll let readers chew on that for a while). To say this is just a satire is too simplistic and would be a crime against literature and possibly a felony against humanity. Did I go too far? True of most absurdist fiction, Electric Barracuda is deeply thematic and creatively communicative. The moral is not explicit and allows the reader to reflect and come to their own conclusion. The world is a dirty, gritty place and doing something wrong for the right reasons is so very forgivable and enduring. Tim Dorsey has earned his way onto my fan shelf. I'll be reading more twisted tales by this author soon.