Thanksgiving is one of the ultimate family rituals that Serge A. Storms is trying to protect. He believes in the value of family and the ultimate neighborhood populated by people who actually know each other. His hero is now Jim Davenport, family man. Jim Davenport and his family have just moved south from Indiana to Tampa, Florida. Davenport is a consultant whose firm is expanding. Jim read an article on how terrific Tampa is, so he loads up the family and moves sight unseen onto Triggerfish Lane.
Almost immediately one of his new neighbors comes to fill him in on the neighborhood which is populated by quite a variety of folk. Across the street is Little League Coach Jack Terrier who has a fetish about keeping his St. Augustine grass perfectly manicured. Down the way is “the rental” full of college kids who could care less what their lawn looks like while they are inventing new ways to get high. The sculptor’s lawn is full of ornamental junk. Then there’s eccentric Ambrose Tarrington, III, who enjoys a high whenever he can borrow a car or check out the mansions for sale.
John Milton enters the story when he is fired from his position as substitute teacher and becomes a bank teller at one of Tampa’s premier institutions in the domed building downtown. John is content to help regular customers like the “E-Team”, a group of elderly ladies whose names all begin with “E” and who spend quite a bit of time in a Buick Regal. When some new VP gets the hair-brained idea to move all the employees around to new positions, John hangs in there. Until this new consulting firm in the person of Jim Davenport comes to determine what has gone wrong at the bank.
Triggerfish Twist is actually a prequel featuring the introduction of Serge A. Storms and his sidekick Coleman. Serge is a wildly intelligent man who just happens to have wild mood swings. If he takes his medication, he does very well, but he doesn’t like how it dopes him up. When he does not take his medication, he just ends up stomping on people … literally. Remember that house on Triggerfish Lane with the sculpture out front? It’s for rent now, and Coleman and Serge move in.
If I were trying to pull this together, I think I’d end up with a huge chart on the wall with lots of pushpins, just like Mahoney, from the Florda Department of Law Enforcement and former buddy of Serge. I did mention that Serge was wanted, didn’t I? And that Jim Davenport just happened to kill a man by mistake? A terrible accident. However, the victim’s brothers get out of prison and are on their way to, you guessed it, Tampa.
Remember that Florida is the state where a few chads determined our last Presidential election. Florida is the state where the “early bird” and the “snow bird” don’t fly, and white sand replaces snow. Tim Dorsey lives here. He used to write for the Tampa Tribune. He’s seen it, lived it, knows it, writes it. This story is demented, frenetic, insane, incredible, zany, wild, whacky, and the best satire of the state I have ever had the treat to read.
All of these events and subplots and people are somehow going to land on Triggerfish Lane. When they do, there is going to be a rocking of the cosmos so overwhelming that Tampa, Florida, as we know it, will never be the same.