THE STINGRAY SHUFFLE

In the frenetic tradition of the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), train buff and maniacal killer Serge A. Storms and his druggie pal, Lenny, chase a briefcase containing $5 million, which surfaced in Florida Roadkill (1999), in Dorsey's fifth over-the-top crime novel. Others trailing it include Russian hoodlums posing as Latinos, in the employ of the incompetent head of the world's only bankrupt drug cartel. The discombobulated mobsters end up on the NY-Miami supertrain, the Stingray Shuffle. The briefcase eventually lands in deserving hands—but will it remain there? The hurtling plot often gets sidetracked by Dorsey's self-indulgent set pieces and history lessons, leaving the reader out of breath, rather than breathless. Lenny says, "All my friends up north keep asking me, does the freak show ever take a break down there?" Not in Dorsey's Florida. 6-city author tour. (Feb. 4)