Atomic Lobster by Tim Dorsey (2008, Hardcover)

What's not to love about an OCD ADHD psychotic killer who, inspired by the Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese Sandwich and the potato that looked like Elvis, hunts for vegetables that resemble famous people in order to sell them to "eBayers with college degrees": "Look!" [holding up a tomato] "Cervantes!"

And a certain perverse twist on therapeutic videos for Non-Confrontationalists ("Clowns vs. Mimes") also find their way onto eBay in this hilarious send-up of serial killers, stoners, little old ladies, suburban couples, strippers, and all things Floridian.

Serge is back with a bullet, torn between creative homicide (more comic than gory) and Sunshine State souvenirs. Coleman is back, torn between getting hammered and getting more hammered — and finally building the biggest bong ever. Then there's good ol' Jim Davenport, the E-Team, the Diaz Brothers, Johnny Vegas (the Accidental Virgin) and an oddly familiar femme fatale named Rachel.

It's reunion time for these characters and a whole lot more. Because as if the fevered action that's got the pot boiling over on a street called Lobster Lane isn't enough, the meanest member of the McGraw clan is finally out of prison and headed South for revenge. And the government is covering up a growing list of mysterious victims across Florida who may or may not be connected to a nefarious plot against national security.

Mix up all these plot elements and throw in one cruise ship from Hell headed for a rogue wave, and you've got "Atomic Lobster", the penultimate madcap adventure of Serge, Coleman, and their cohorts from previous novels in Tim Dorsey's hysterically funny slapstick-noir saga. You don't have to have read the other books to enjoy this one, but after you've read it, you're liable to want to get ahold of the rest of the series just to find out what you've missed.

If twisted humor and satire appeal to you, then "Atomic Lobster" will too. And as an added plus, riffling selected groups of pages gives you a flip-book "movie" of a lobster claw — presumably atomic — floating up and then receding, over and over.

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Absolutely hilarious. I keep waiting to show up in one of Tim Dorsey's books, because he's writing about all my lifelong friends and drinking buddies here in Florida. Wait..., surely I'm not Coleman!!! If you love "the real" Florida, you will love T.D. and all his books. Outstanding!!!

Travis McGee saw all this coming....., I'm glad he's not here to see it.