Ah....Tim Dorsey and his character Serge A. Storms what can I say?  This is by far my favorite series right now.  Tim Dorsey is one of those writers that you either love or hate - right now a lot people love him. nbsp; His writing is over the top in just about every respect.  He is a Florida writer and it seems the popular Florida writers defintely have a style and that style is to insert crazy laughs into their story and to set them, of course, in Florida.  Tim Dorsey's murder plots are outrageous, the muders and killings are gruesome, the sex can in no way be described as love making and the laughs are absolutely everywhere.  I am rambling - let me give you an excerpt - the beginning, this is how the book starts, the prologue:

Uh-oh. Lenny slipped me LSD.

That can be the only explanation.

It's been nonstop hallucinations.  Which normally I don't mind, but you wouldn't believe how it complicates trying to cross U.S. 1 against heavy traffic.  I must have stepped off the curb and headed back about fifty times now.  I think I'm in the Florida Keys.

I keep slapping the side of my head to make the visions stop, but it only changes the picture, like a slide projector.

Slap!

Carjackings, exploitation of the elderly, cigarette boats running from the Coast Guard, melanoma, tar balls, deed restrictions, beefy mosquitoes that crack windshields, Colombian shoot-outs, Cuban boycotts, Mexican standoffs, rampant-growth speculators, offshore-drilling lobbyists, cheap rum, cheaper motels, crack vials, condoms, mouse ears, Patrick Kennedy Smith, Phillip Michael Thomas, chicken wing restaurants featuring women's breasts....

Slap!

So, yeah, that is the first coupla paragraphs of the book and it just gets crazier from there.  The voice speaking above is Dorsey's main character Serge A . Storms.  Serge is a homicidal lunatic with a love of all things Florida.  Oh, don't worry he doesn't kill just to kill, he only kills people that have wronged others in some way.  To say more than that would require me to write a book about this character - read it for yourself - you'll see.

A warning:  For those with no funny bone, appreciation of dark comedy, who cringe at four letter words, who dislike grisly murder scenes and/or graphic sex scenes should not even consider reading Dorsey's books.  He will just offend you.  These are definitely rated R type books.

So, out of all of Dorsey's books why this one?  Well.  First the title.  For those not familiar with Florida or its West Coast beaches probably have no-idea what this activity is.  Florida's West Coast beaches are a breeding ground for stingrays.  So, when one enters the ocean it is smart to shuffle one's feet across the sand in order to not step on a stingray.  Stepping on a stingray is a very bad thing - they are not called stingrays for nothing.  Thus, the Stingray Shuffle.  Uniquely Floridian.

Second is this was the first Dorsey book I ever bought and read.   It is a signed copy and probably one of my most prized possesions.  This is the book that started my love affair Dorsey's books.

Read it!