Torpedo Juice (AUDIOBOOK) (CD) [Audio CD]

Tim Dorsey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2006

Internationally best-selling author Tim Dorsey's irreverent novels starring evil genius Serge A. Storms-lovable psychiatric hospital escapee-zoom along at breakneck speed, delivering laughs and shocks in droves. In Torpedo Juice Serge heads for the Florida Keys where, curiously enough, he isn't the saltiest nut in the jar. Serge has two missions-re-invent himself and get married, although he hasn't picked the lucky lady yet. What he doesn't know is that enough serial and spree killers are headed his way to have a parade of psychopaths. Do the Keys have room for all the lunatics?

Product Details

• Audio CD
• ISBN-10: 1419330934
• ISBN-13: 978-1419330933
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,368,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tim Dorsey was a reporter and editor for the Tampa Tribune from 1987 to 1999 and is the author of ten previous novels: Florida Roadkill, Hammerhead Ranch Motel, Orange Crush, Triggerfish Twist, The Stingray Shuffle, Cadillac Beach, Torpedo Juice, The Big Bamboo, Hurricane Punch, and Atomic Lobster. He lives in Tampa, Florida.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another welcome and wonderful excursion into South Florida, January 29, 2005

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Torpedo Juice: A Novel (Hardcover)

You'd have to be crazy to live someplace that could have four back-to-back hurricanes. But then it's probably not the hurricanes that draw people to South Florida. There's something about what a perpetually sunny if occasionally murderously windy climate does to people that provides the fodder for writers like Carl Hiaasen, Dave Barry (wearing his fiction hat), and Tim Dorsey.

TORPEDO JUICE, Dorsey's sixth novel, provides yet another welcome and wonderful excursion into the land famous for oranges, gators, an animated rodent, hanging chads, and the aforementioned meteorological phenomenon that causes shopping malls to swap roofs.

Before you're forty pages into Dorsey's latest effort you've encountered a menagerie of loopy characters. Chief among them is Serge A. Storms, a rather charming, intelligent, and likable homicidal maniac who rescues a couple of vacationing retirees from a lowlife who has barged into their hotel room to clean out their cash. Shortly thereafter Serge turns an MRI machine into an instrument of street justice. The result is the definition of "fiendishly clever," and leaves homicide detectives trying to figure out why the body they've found has exit wounds only. From there things take a turn for the strange, as Serge hooks up with a perpetually stoned pothead named Coleman and embarks on a quest to find a marriageable girl.

Dorsey is an undeniably funny writer, with a remarkable knack for wringing laughter out of situations that might otherwise make readers squirm. He revels in the bizarre, and his characters always seem to be at the center of swirls and eddies of weirdness, like that cloud of dust that accompanied Pigpen in Charles Schultz's "Peanuts" comics. But Dorsey pulls this off without descending into silliness. This is funny stuff, made even funnier by virtue of its underlying darkness.

TORPEDO JUICE is my first exposure to Tim Dorsey, which is too bad because now I have no choice but to go out and buy his six previous books. But no sacrifice is too great when it comes to overloading my already straining bookshelves with stuff that is well worth reading. Besides, the added weight will keep the shelves in place here on the North Coast if Lake Erie ever produces a hurricane.

--- Reviewed by Bob Rhubart

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Typical Dorsey - as addictive as Coleman's weed, February 6, 2005

By 

Wolfpack Jack "beerchaser" (Cary, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Torpedo Juice: A Novel (Hardcover)

If you're looking for highbrow, Pulitzer Prize-type material in a book, don't look here. But if you're looking for a book that will entertain you with some good laughs, which is my kind of book, then Tim Dorsey's your man. It's not every writer that could make a serial killer into a character than you can identify with and root for, but Dorsey does it. He is easily one of my favorite writers.

As for Torpedo Juice, this book marks the return of that lovable loser Coleman. The circumstances by which Dorsey brings him back are somewhat iffy, but who cares, we're reading this book for fun not for realism. Serge also gets married in this book, and learns some of the hard lessons that all men who have gone before him have to face sooner or later (i.e. that logic has no meaning where wives are concerned). The rest of the plot for Torpedo Juice was a little weak though, I thought. Usually Dorsey has about 4-5 plotlines all running simultaneously that come crashing together at the end, but TJ didn't really have that whiz-bang feeling to it.

In my opinion Dorsey has fallen into a pattern where his even-numbered books (Hammerhead, Triggerfish, Cadillac) are terrific, and the odd-numbered books (Roadkill, Orange, Stingray, Torpedo) less so, though still quite good. Triggerfish Twist is quite possibly THE funniest book I've ever read; I can't recommend it highly enough. Torpedo Juice isn't Dorsey's best effort, but I still enjoyed every minute of it and can't wait for the next adventure of Serge A. Storms. Plus maybe we'll get Coleman and Lenny together in the same book; that should be interesting.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars God I love these books!, February 14, 2005

By 

Dorsey Fan "Silent Service Chief" (Kingsland GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Torpedo Juice: A Novel (Hardcover)

For anyone who is not sure about Tim Dorsey and his series of books, I can only say one thing: You do not know what you are missing! These are quite possibly some of the funniest, intelligent books I have ever read. It started with Triggerfish Twist (THE FUNNIEST BOOK OF ALL TIME) and has culminated with Torpedo Juice. His latest book is not quite up to the hilarious rollercoasters of his past books, but is still a Laugh out Loud, wonderful story about marriage, florida, murder, drugs, and everything else I have come to love in Tim Dorsey's novels. I never thought I would cheer for a serial murderer, or his drug-crazed friends, but I cannot help myself! I finished this latest book onboard a Southwest airplane during a trip to Orlando. I just could not put it down! And I walked off that plane wearing my Serge Storms Ball cap (with the little gun-toting fish and signed by Tim Dorsey) and my Serge World Tour T-shirt, grinning from ear-to-ear, and still chuckling about AA meetings. Go out and buy this book. Read them all! You will not be sorry.