Book Review: Hurricane Punch

Book Review: Hurricane Punch

Author: Tim Dorsey

Date: 2007

Publisher: Harper Collins

ISBN: 978-0-06-082967-4

Length: 368 pages

Quote: “My next sacrifice will be offered when the barometer dips below twenty-nine inches.—The Eye of the Storm.”

Hurricane Punch is inaccurately labelled a novel. It is not, one hopes, a serious consideration of the human condition.

Hurricane Punch is apparently meant to be a comic murder mystery, if there is such a thing. Murder mysteries can be relieved with comic touches, like Lord Peter Wimsey’s whimsical banter, or Mrs. Murphy’s observations to Pewter, Tucker, and the other animals about the craziness of humans. Murder mysteries are, however, supposed to make some effort to treat the murders seriously. A real attempt to consider the effects of murders on the families, the suspects, or even the detectives involved would make it harder for readers to enjoy the puzzle-solving, and so far as I know only Dorothy Sayers has even tried that...but in Hurricane Punch we have a novel, representative of a series, in which murder is presented as comic.

This is tolerable because it’s not successful as a novel. The characters are such one-dimensional stereotypes that one never forgets that one is in Toon Town, where nothing ever really does a character any damage, and any appearance of death or even of pain is strictly part of the act. The victims in a Tim Dorsey novel aren’t human. Neither are the murderers, the detectives, or anybody else.

The repeating character in the series is Serge Storm, an unlikely murderer who is fully in touch with all aspects of reality except the idea that murder is wrong. When Serge spots someone doing something obnoxious, his role in his surreal universe is to wipe out the offender in a creatively sadistic way. At the beginning of Hurricane Punch Serge, who has some experience as a rock musician, takes exception to the rap music blasting out of a guy’s car, so he rigs up a giant amplifier, puts the offender inside it, and kills the offender by noise torture. With classic rock music.

Two other men, besides Serge’s stoned-out sidekick, have speaking parts in this novel. Serge is not positively identified as Irish—just insane in a stereotypically Irish way, like his author's id—but Mahoney and McSwirley are definitely Irish. Both of them appear to be about as crazy as Serge. One of them might just possibly be crazier. They suspect each other, and the story gives some reason for the reader to suspect either or both of them.

There’s not really what can be called a speaking part for a female character in this novel, but there is an obligatory sex scene. It is so tersely written that the kiddies won’t understand it, and so outrageous that the adult reader won’t believe it, but a couple who read it together might enjoy trying...anyway, the scene repeats one incident with two females, in what seems to have started out as a mistake, then allows the two women to notice each other, raising their contribution to the story from a caterwauling part to a screaming-and-fighting part.

Anyway, the mystery in Hurricane Punch is whether the serial killer who calls himself “The Eye of the Storm” is Serge himself, in escalating dementia, or Mahoney, or McSwirley, or possibly even some unlikely minor character like Detective Dipsy or Serge’s equally manic ex-wife Molly. And the story and the characters are so unlikely that there’s no real way for the reader to tell. We are not actually in Florida any more. We are in an alternate universe inspired by the history and geography of Florida, but having less in common with Florida than Piers Anthony’s frankly fantastic Land of Xanth. If you like to be puzzled and mystified by a mystery, this one is wacky enough to keep you guessing for a good long time.

What you’ll love: tidbits of Florida trivia, and occasionally a comic line or scene that’s actually funny rather than merely absurd.

What you’ll hate: there are no likable, and no believable, characters in this book. It’s slapstick nonsense all the way, rather like “Beep Beep the Roadrunner” cartoons, and everybody deserves to be slapped. If you’re looking for a novel you’re likely to slap the book shut on the lot of’em.

If you're looking for violent slapstick comedy, you'll enjoy this book.