Remembering Tim Dorsey

Tim Dorsey, the author of 26 "darkly comic" crime novels, passed away this past Sunday at his home in Islamorada, Florida, at the age of 62. Dorsey was a reporter and editor at the Tampa Tribune, who always wanted to write novels. Back in 1999, he published Florida Roadkill, featuring Serge A. Storms, a serial killer with a heart of gold. It was a hit, and that same year Dorsey quit his day job to write full-time. All 26 of his books featured Serge, along with his drug-addled sidekick Coleman. Dorsey, who grew up in Riviera Beach, Florida, just north of West Palm Beach, was obsessed with Florida history and culture, the weirder the better. Probably not coincidently, his character Serge also grew up in Riviera Beach and obsessed with all things Florida. Dorsey would travel throughout the state, talk to locals, and turn all the things he learned and saw into outlandish crime novels. When asked for his idea of the good life, he said he was living it. It is sad to think it ended at the relatively young age of 62. I read Florida Roadkill as soon as it came out, and was a fan from that point on. I have not read all 26 books, and do not think I have read Atomic Lobster. But in an interview with Powell's Books, Dorsey described it as "the dissection of a Florida neighborhood populated almost entirely by degenerates, con men, the terminally disfunctional, golf freaks, trophy wives, and prescription-abusing retirees in Buicks tying up traffic. In other words, a documentary." I definitely have to check that one out ASAP.