Shark Skin Suite

Nobody writes about Florida quite like Tim Dorsey.  And, as he points out in Shark Skin Suite (#476), his latest Serge A. Storm opus, his cache of bizarre Florida stories is almost endless.  Heck, in the Prologue of this story, when one of the G Force ladies starts to reel off stories that had been in the recent local news, I realized that I could have been the one reciting that list because all of those stories had been in our local news over the last year or so!  As Dave Barry, another famous Florida writer, is fond of saying, "I am not making this up!"

In Shark Skin Suite, Dorsey takes aim at the flourishing Florida foreclosure business.  And make no mistake about it, it is a business to the characters who people this novel, but who are based on real life actions perpetrated on their victims.  Much of the action in this novel revolves around a class action suit brought by two very junior associates of a prestigious south Florida law firm, one of whom happens to have been an old flame of Serge's.  Too bad for the defense's Ivy League team that these wet-behind-the-ears first time trial lawyers turn out to be smarter and more persistent than they are, despite a mounting body count!  Much of the action takes place, fittingly, in Key West, with a Coleman (Serge's constantly high sidekick) surprise thrown in that I certainly didn't see coming.

Although I enjoyed Shark Skin Suite, I did find it a little difficult to get into.  I wasn't sure for awhile just where the story was headed.  Once Dorsey hit his stride, it was fine.  I do admit to being disappointed that a few more of the suits and unsavory lenders didn't meet a more fitting end that Serge normally devises for such lowlifes.  I guess that makes me bloodthirsty, but it's always so satisfying when a bad guy meets the kind of end he or she truly deserves.  An added benefit of this book was that now I know what to expect when my husband and I visit the Everglades outpost in Flamingo, Florida, later this year.  Thanks, Mr. Dorsey!  There's always some useful Florida history and information tucked into your books, and that's a good reason to keep coming back for more.