Tiger Shrimp Tango by Tim Dorsey, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Serge Storms and his buddy Coleman are traveling throughout Florida trying to catch up with some scam artists, who are fleecing people by creating elaborate stunts to get them out of their homes or hotel rooms in Tiger Shrimp Tango, the 17th comic mystery in this series by Tim Dorsey.

Serge is determined to rid his state — yes, he considers Florida to be his state, as in he's responsible for all the good that happens there and all the bad reflects poorly on him personally — of a new breed of well-organized scammers, who are making out like, well, bandits. His source of information is private eye named Mahoney, who channels his inner Phillip Marlowe when speaking. (It's pretty funny the sentences he comes up with, with the inevitable response being, "Huh?") From the east coast of Florida to the west coast, up and down the state, Serge catches up with one group after another, all the while devising the most cleverly outlandish ways of putting them out of business.

Tiger Shrimp Tango is fairly typical of the madcap adventures of the books in this series, and while none of these stories could actually be called "cohesive", this one seems less so than most. There's more than the usual sense of randomness here, not so much in how Serge spends his time and the creative ways he kills the bad guys but with the underlying (and presumably unifying) plot that should be the foundation for all that goes on. And while Serge and Coleman are a team, there's actually too much Coleman in this latest effort. Coleman works best as a character that Serge plays off of; instead, he frequently seems to overshadow Serge in scenes … and not in a good way. On balance, Tiger Shrimp Tango will likely please existing fans but really isn't one of the better entries in this series.

Acknowledgment: HarperCollins provided a copy of Tiger Shrimp Tango for this review.

Atomic Lobster
William Morrow (Hardcover), January 2008
ISBN-13: 9780060829698; ISBN-10: 0060829699

Shark Skin Suite
William Morrow (Hardcover), January 2015
ISBN-13: 9780062240019; ISBN-10: 0062240013

Tiger Shrimp Tango

A Serge A. Storms Mystery by Tim Dorsey