Rating: 
Summary: Yeowch!!!
Review: This guy Dorsey does not let up, compadres--fusing outrageous satire, maniacal mayhem, and gonzo goings on, Mr. D. puts multitudinous characters in this funfest through an untold number of shenanigans. They snort, splatter, spit, sting, sing, shimmy, shake, and slice their way through this six hundred mile a minute novel like Mexican jumping beans on a 500 degree Fahrenheit hotplate.You got your truly unstable Serge Storms--inventor of the 50 most unique ways to kill people you've ever seen and a Florida history nut to boot. You got your three former Soviet bloc mobsters posing as Latinos. You got your dangerous insurance executive who'll kill before he'll lose money. You got your drug gulping sidekick and your hot mama who shovels in just as many drugs as Mr. Sidekick only looks a lot better to the roving eye doing it. And you got another 14 or so characters who may or may not last through this rocket-powered roller coaster as well. Sean and David are buddies who hook up to go fishing and wind up with a whole ton of money they didn't expect thanks to the nervousness of a rich sleazy dentist. It was Serge who squeezed the money of Dr. Tooth in the first place and now he wants his bucks. But they're not where Serge thinks they are. So he goes after the money. That's more or less the plot, but you have to realize that this Dorsey guy has read a couple of Toms--Robbins and Sharpe--as well as THE greatest Floridian crime novelist, Charles Willeford, and mixed these three guys together along with his own totally insane manic energy and concocted a snazzy, white hot laugh out loud crime novel that does not disappoint those of us who love hardboiled stuff. If you want to laugh like a hyena and get punched in the face with some bloody good fun, here is a great book to do it with. Don't say you weren't warned.
Rating: 
Summary: So many ways to die
Review: This is one of the funniest books I have read. Tim Dorsey can kill off more characters in the most unique ways in the shortest time. It is impossible to not share this book with others.
Rating:
Summary: To the Dorsey critics!
Review: You critics are out of your friggin' minds! This is satire! This type of writing is supposed to be unbelievable, ridiculous, and absurd. And really, is it unbelievable? He's skewed his stories to cartoonish proportions for maximum sidesplitting, horse laughing humor, but the man is speakin' the truth. Check this fact: There is nothing unbelievable about his books. It's satire pumped up to a level we've never seen before . . . but is that bad? Or is it fresh? New? Pushing the boundaries? Inventive? Genius? Tim Dorsey is a goddamned roaring giant at the style! Hiassen and Shames should bow down like wounded buffalos and French kiss Dorsey's omnipotent feet. I guarantee you when, and if, Hiassen reads a Dorsey novel it makes his stomach churn and his little heart race, because he knows in the midnight of his soul he's dealing with a creative mind that could bust a manic break dance around his own. Lastly, screw story! Who frickin' cares! So, his books are not as tight as Shames or Hiassen, so your average Dorsey novel has twenty, thirty, or forty more subplots than it should, so Dorsey's idea of a love interest is a sadistic coke slut that likes to take it up the ass with a flashlight - BOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!! BIG DEAL! That's what it is! I applaud Dorsey for taking it to the next level and creating characters and situations like we've never seen before. And to anyone that doesn't believe Tim Dorsey should sit on the throne of outlandishness and rule over us all, I hereby challenge you to a no-holds barred, one wrist tied, shiv fight....
Rating:
Summary: Tim Dorsey is a cool guy.
Review: FL Roadkill is by far the funniest, most entertaining, and completely whacko satire ever written about Florida. No review could ever do justice to Tim's writing, you have to read it yourself. People I would not recommend this book to:
- Florida Politicians
- Small Children
- Russians who impersonate Latino Drug-Runners People I would recommend this book to:
- Everyone Else
Rating:
Summary: Dam* good and very funny...
Review: To those who think Tim Dorsey isn't in the same league as Hiaasen, Shames or Leonard and the rest of the ilk....I think you need to seriously develop some taste. You want to talk about "borrowing" from Hiaasen? Then read "Big Trouble" by Dave Barry. As much as I love Hiaasen, and have read almost every one of his books, his approach thesedays is so extremely color-by-the-numbers, that you can see what's coming from about 20 miles away. Dorsey stands on his own and he does it incredibly well. With nods of the head to Hiaasen and even Barry (they do a "cameo" in this book), this book is its own creation. It owes very little to the other authors. This book has many twists and turns, and it's fantastic to see how these characters get what's coming to them. There are many times that what is going on in the story is just laugh-out-loud funny. Contrary to some of the short-attention-span readers below, you DO care what happens to these characters. They DO come to life and make you feel as if you almost know them. Having lived in Tampa, as well as South Florida before, maybe this is a humor that is best appreciated by Florida folks. Maybe there's something that's lost in the translation on its way to other states (Virginia and Oregon, I'm looking in your direction.) A word of "caution" I suppose is in order. Not to give away the ending of this book, but, it just ends. It ends with an old-fashioned radio program ending such as: "Will our hero escape the death trap?" or "What will become of?" Yes, no perfect-wrap-it-up-in-a-pretty-bow style "EPILOGUE" endings so famous with Hiaasen and ripped off by Barry and Shames. Perhaps some kudos are in order for creative marketing skills, I don't really know. Having said that about the ending, the story continues and is picked back up in "Hammerhead Ranch Motel." So, my advice, buy both of these books to get the complete tale, or you will be just left wondering. You want some Florida authors that make Hiaasen (again, even as much as I love him), Shames, Barry, and Dorsey, seem like school children? Look into James W. Hall and Randy Wayne White. They are truly gifted and epitomize literary skill. If overall wackiness is your genre, look further into anything by Christopher Moore. Enjoy it for good writing, great humor, and a entertaining story. If you're constantly reading line by line, looking for things similar to other authors, get a life. You have far too much time on your hands if that's the case. If it is the case, think about this, someone (and I won't name names) said that all fiction is styled directly from "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn." Put that in your pseudo-intellectual pipe and smoke it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not in the same league
Review: Tim Dorsey's "Florida Road Kill" doesn't belong in the same league, or even bookshelf, as Carl Hiaasen, Lawrence Shames, James Hall, Jimmy Buffett and Randy Wayne White. These guys really know how to delve into the Florida psyche. Dorsey has used all of the crazy Florida eco-terrorist/politico/bimbo/fisherman/hunter/tourist stereotype plot lines, most borrowed from the above authors, in one single book. What you get is a confusing story with a lot of gratuitous violence and bloodshed thrown in. You don't even care what happens to the main characters. Yes, there are some funny parts, which is why this didn't get the dreaded one-star rating. My advice? Throw this one out and start with "Double Whammy" or "Welcome to Paradise". Lots better story telling with a lot less blood and guts. You might even want to visit Florida after that!
Rating:
Summary: Roadkill doesn't need CPR
Review: Florida Roadkill is a funny mystery in the tradition of Hiaason. It also provides tidbits of Florida history that are fascinating as well as an appropiate lamentation on how the state has degenerated in the last half century. One caveat: the three books by Dorsey, i.e. Florida Roadkill, Hammerhead Motel and Orange Crush should be read in order since they are in effect a trilogy best read as one book.
Rating:
Summary: Not Up to Par of Hiaissen, Hall, Shames, etc.
Review: Despite his comparisons to other South Florida authors like Carl Hiaasen, Laurence Shames, and James W. Hall, I was so disappointed in Tim Dorsey's "Florida Road Kill" that I stopped reading it 1/3 of the way through - even after trying to resume reading twice! Dorsey's attempts to shock and amuse are so over-the-top that "Florida Road Kill" reads like a comic book. As expressed in earlier reviews, the reader doesn't care what happens to any of the characters, from the "bad guys" who are so sick as to evoke only disgust, to the "good guys" who are painted TOO good and are thus just as unbelievable. I gave the book 2 stars because the author's humor does work on occasion. Unfortunately, he makes the plot so busy, it reads like "Short Attention Span Theater." I'm very fond of South Florida crime capers, as well as the subtle nuttiness of Pete Hautman's Minnesota - which DOES deserve to be compared to Carl Hiaasen. Tim Dorsey's hyperbole-stren world, unfortunately, does not. At least, not yet.
Rating:
Summary: Florida Roadkill delivers
Review: If laughing out loud was punishable, I would be sentenced to life for reading "Roadkill". Dorsey has managed to stockpile a cast of misfits so volatile that it makes a molotov cocktail taste like a Shirley Temple. Imagine throwing a dinner party with the male counter-parts of Thelma and Louise, the entire cast of "America's Dumbest Criminals, Manson (both Charles and Marilyn), and that's just the kiddie table! My only complaint is that the transposed time lines coupled with the vast amount of characters made the read a bit confusing. However, the extra mental work was well worth the ride.
Rating:
Summary: The last 1/4 was like pulling teeth
Review: I read a lot of reviews on amazon, but I've never submitted one. I'm submitting this first one simply because I feel it is my duty to warn readers of this book. Are the characters and plotlines outrageous? Definitely. Are they funny? Somewhat. Are they at all credible? Definitely not. It seems as if Tim Dorsey is attempting to go out of his way to be outrageous and shock the reader. Although I admit this may be a good strategy to initially grab the reader's attention, if the book is innundated with outrageous and incredible scenes one after the other, it starts becoming forced and distracts from any sort of plot the author is trying to develop. The story is further disjointed by Dorsey's use of too many characters. This frustrates the reader because we're now forced to try to remember the situation of every character; characters we don't particularly care about to begin with. I didn't give this book the minimum amount of stars because I have to admit, the first half of the book kept me reading. Also, Dorsey's storytelling ability is not bad when he sticks to character development. There was an especially poignant moment in the book with one of the characters recalling a memory he had with his dying father. But other than that, I can't really endorse the book. I would definitely stay away.
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