[MandoMan]

I used to teach college classes in Pennsylvania called The Comic Crime Caper, about not detectives but criminals too outrageous and often stupid to live. I soon learned that most of them were set in Florida. The most celebrated author of these novels is Carl Hiassen, but really, the most outrageous is Tim Dorsey, who wrote 26 comic and violent novels featuring Serge A. Storms, a charming psychopath with a great love of oddball Florida historical monuments. Tim died December 3 at age 62. His books were “the dissection of a Florida neighborhood populated almost entirely by degenerates, con men, the terminally dysfunctional, golf freaks, trophy wives, and prescription-abusing retirees in Buicks tying up traffic. In other words, a documentary.” If this sounds like good fun, read his books, ideally in order by publication date.