Tim Dorsey has finally taken his character Serge A. Storms back to his roots in Riviera Beach, Florida, and set most of the action in his latest novel, The Pope of Palm Beach (#746), in and around Palm Beach County. It's always fun to read about places with which you are familiar, so I particularly enjoyed Serge and Coleman's latest adventure.
The Pope in this case is a legendary surfer, Darby Pope, who knows everyone in the Riviera Beach/ Palm Beach area in the 60s, high and low, good and bad, supporting his surfing habit by welding on the docks of the Port of Palm Beach. The day he invites gawky young Kenny Reese to catch a wave with him will change both of their lives. He introduces Kenny to reading, which in turn leads Kenny to become a successful author. But one day when the pair are out gathering material for Kenny's newest book, things go badly awry, and the Pope winds up dead.
Fast forward to the present where Serge and Coleman are following a literary trail through Florida, visiting sites where Hemingway and Zora Neale Hurston once lived and wrote. But this time around, Serge wants to see if he can find the hangout of one of his favorite contemporary authors, Kenny Reese, who has disappeared from the publishing world without a trace. Not that his search is without problems. In typical Serge fashion, he does deal with several folks who richly deserve their ends.
I thought the justice he rendered to a thinly-disguised Martin Shekreli Big Pharma tycoon named Sterling Hanover was fitting, as was the punishment meted out to drunken frat boys molesting nesting sea turtles along the beach. Is it wrong to applaud such satisfying payback? If so, I'm guilty! But it is good to read a novel that can defeat the bad guys and let the nice guys win for a change. You go, Serge!
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