The Stingray Shuffle is Tim Dorsey's fifth novel, published in 2003. It is the fifth novel to feature criminal Serge A. Storms, and also concludes the story arc, begun in the first novel, Florida Roadkill, about Serge's pursuit of a briefcase containing $5 million.
The Stingray Shuffle is the title of a little-known novel by little-known novelist Ralph Krunkleton, which creates a frame story for the novel's plot;
According to Serge, "the stingray shuffle" is a movement routine to be used when encountering a stingray in shallow water: shuffling one's feet carefully, to avoid stepping on or kicking the stingray;
Novelist Ralph Krunkleton has never been more than marginally successful, but his publishers are surprised to see sales of his novel The Stingray Shuffle soaring in a small bookstore in Tampa, Florida. The book's publishers mount a publicity blitz culminating in a train journey with the author from New York to Miami. What they do not realize is that no one is reading the book; the owners of the bookstore are selling packets of cocaine in hollowed-out paperback copies of Shuffle, trusting that no legitimate customer will ask for such an obscure title. Unfortunately, the publicity campaign sparks a reading at the store with Krunkleton as the guest speaker, where the cocaine in the books is discovered and the owners are forced to close and flee the county.
The owners - five former KGB agents dismissed from intelligence work for gross stupidity - are then recruited by "Mr. Grande", the head of the Mierda Cartel (the smallest in the world) to track down a briefcase containing $5 million in cash that was accidentally paid out by the insurance company that was laundering the Cartel's earnings. The briefcase was last seen at the conclusion of Hammerhead Ranch Motel, in the possession of private investigator Paul and Ernest Hemingway-impersonator Jethro Maddox. Also on the trail of the briefcase are Serge and his traveling companion, Don Johnson-impersonator Lenny Lipowicz.
The briefcase changes hands several times, and Paul, Jethro, and several of the Russians are killed, before their leader, Ivan, finally gets the briefcase from Serge (who was hoping to use the money to buy a trip into space and a monogrammed spacesuit from the Russians) and takes it to New York planning to buy a former Sovietsubmarine that Mr. Grande has promised to a larger, Colombian cartel for drug trafficking. Serge leaves Lenny at his mother's home and follows Ivan's trail to New York.
While searching for the briefcase, Serge encounters five single mothers from Miami, who have been best friends since college and now formed a book club. They have traveled to Manhattan to attend the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square and then join the Krunkleton book tour on its way back to Florida. The women are instantly taken with Serge, and he seduces one of them, Samantha, who invites him to join them aboard the Silver Stingray.
Ivan inadvertently switches the briefcase with an identical one carried by a bathroom attendant; when the attendant peeks inside and sees the money, he flees New York on the first available train, the Silver Stingray. Searching the attendant's apartment, Ivan and a Jamaican gang leader, "Zig-Zag", hear a message on his answering machine confirming the train booking.
Hijinks ensue aboard the train, which has been set up as a mystery tour loosely based on one of Krunkelton's books. These include Ivan and Zigzag jumping their car onto the roof of the train from an overhanging bridge, and Serge feverishly searching the train's staterooms for the briefcase. In the finale, the train derails, and Serge, "in character" as the mystery tour's detective, dramatically announces that one of the other actors, a washed-up hypnotist named Preston, was actually murdered rather than killed in the crash. Serge then deduces that Preston was the man who impregnated each member of the book club in college years ago, and they signed up for the tour not just to meet Krunkelton, but to confront Preston. At first, they believe he is accusing one of them of the murder, but he confesses that he killed Preston himself, as just punishment for his treatment of them. Then the unstable train lurches again, and Serge hits his head, becoming amnesiac. He wanders off the train in a daze, and Samantha discovers the briefcase hidden with her luggage.
A few months later, the five women are living large, having shared the $5 million between themselves. When they meet again to discuss Ralph Krunkelton's latest novel (a lurid potboiler inspired by his sudden notoriety after the train crash), they raise a toast to Serge, wherever he may be.
In fact, Serge is camping on an off-limits island off the Florida coast, giving history lessons to its population of test monkeys.
Johnny Vegas
Several of Dorsey's novels features one or more failed attempts by his recurring character, Johnny Vegas, to finally lose his virginity. In this novel:
Johnny takes a girl to a mini-golf course, pretending to be a golf pro; they try to have sex in the range cart, but as it makes its way onto the course, it becomes a target for the other golfers, causing the woman to jump out in fear before getting hit on the head with a ball;
Johnny tries to have sex with a female book reviewer aboard the Silver Stingray, but when the train derails, both Johnny and the woman are unharmed, but the woman is too shaken to continue.
On a speed boat, Vegas takes a woman to the small island. High on cocaine, the woman takes off her clothes and runs onto the island. Just as Johnny follows, the pair are attacked by the test monkeys.
Johnny also recalls two failures from his past:
Trying to have sex with a Cuban girl in Little Havana, before being interrupted by the FBI's removal of Elián González from his relatives' home nearby.
Blow is a 2001 American biographical crime film, directed by Ted Demme, about an American cocaine kingpin and his international network. David McKenna and Nick Cassavetes adapted Bruce Porter's 1993 book Blow: How a Small Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellín Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All for the screenplay. It is based on the real-life stories of U.S. drug trafficker George Jung and his connections including narcotics kings Pablo Escobar and Carlos Lehder Rivas, and the Medellín Cartel.
The Medellín Cartel was a powerful and highly organized Colombian drug cartel and terrorist organization originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia that was founded and led by Pablo Escobar. It is often considered the first major "drug cartel" and was referred to as such due to the organization's upper echelons being built on a partnership between multiple Colombian traffickers operating alongside Escobar. Included were Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez, Juan David Ochoa Vásquez, José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha and Carlos Lehder. The cartel operated from 1967 to 1993 in Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Although the organization started out as a smuggling network in the late 1960s, it wasn't until 1975 that the organization turned to trafficking cocaine. At the height of its operations, the Medellín Cartel smuggled multiple tons of cocaine each week into countries around the world and brought in up to US$60 million daily in drug profits.
George Jacob Jung, nicknamed Boston George and El Americano, was an American drug trafficker and smuggler. He was a major figure in the United States cocaine trade during the 1970s and early 1980s. Jung and his partner Carlos Lehder smuggled cocaine into the United States for the Colombian Medellín Cartel. Jung was sentenced to 70 years in prison in 1994 on conspiracy charges, but was released in 2014. Jung was portrayed by Johnny Depp in the biopic Blow (2001).
Antonio "Tony" Montana is a fictional character and the protagonist of the 1983 film Scarface. This character is portrayed by Al Pacino in the film and is voiced by André Sogliuzzo in the 2006 video game Scarface: The World Is Yours. Embodying the rise from the bottom to the top, Tony Montana has become a cultural icon and is one of the most well-known movie characters ever.
Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal was an American commercial airline pilot who became a major drug smuggler for the Medellín Cartel. When Seal was convicted of smuggling charges, he became an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration and testified in several major drug trials. He was murdered on February 19, 1986, by contract killers hired by the cartel.
Serge A. Storms is the main protagonist in most of Tim Dorsey's novels. His name is a pun on storm surge. Most often described as "intense" in personality, he is a vagrant with a voracious intellect and an encyclopedic knowledge of Florida history, but prone to periods of "focus" that lead him to commit brutal - and often elaborately planned and staged - acts of violence.
Triggerfish Twist is a 2002 crime novel by Tim Dorsey, the fourth in his series featuring Serge A. Storms.
Florida Roadkill is a black comedy crime novel by Tim Dorsey, the first in his series centered around the character Serge A. Storms. It was published in 1999 by William Morrow and Company, an imprint of HarperCollins.
Hammerhead Ranch Motel is a novel by Tim Dorsey published in 2000. It continues the story, started in Florida Roadkill, of blithe psychopath Serge A. Storms and his pursuit of five million dollars in cash hidden in the trunk of a car. The book is non-linear, with some scenes occurring at the same time chronologically but told out of order with later scenes.
Cadillac Beach is the sixth novel written by Tim Dorsey, published in 2004.
Norman's Cay is a small Bahamian island in the Exumas, a chain of islands south and east of Nassau, that served as the headquarters for Carlos Lehder's drug smuggling operation from 1978 until around 1982.
Griselda Blanco Restrepo, known as the Black Widow, was a Colombian drug lord of the Medellín Cartel, and in the Miami-based cocaine drug trade and underworld, during the 1970s through the early 2000s. She was shot dead on September 3, 2012, aged 69.
Juan García Abrego is a Mexican convicted drug lord and former leader of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. He started in the cartel under the tutelage of his uncle Juan Nepomuceno Guerra.
A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin or narcotrafficker is a type of crime boss, who is in charge of a drug-trafficking network, organization, or enterprise.
The depiction of Colombia in popular culture, especially the portrayal of Colombian people in film and fiction, has been asserted by Colombian organizations and government to be largely negative and has raised concerns that it reinforces, or even engenders, societal prejudice and discrimination due to association with narco-trafficking, terrorism, illegal immigration and other criminal elements, poverty and welfare. The Colombian government-funded Colombia is Passion advertisement campaign as an attempt to improve Colombia's image abroad, with mixed results hoping for more positive views on Colombia.
Murder Over New York is a 1940 American mystery film directed by Harry Lachman and starring Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan. The cast also features Marjorie Weaver, Robert Lowery and Ricardo Cortez. Chan must solve a murder mystery while attending a police convention. Shemp Howard plays "Shorty McCoy" in an uncredited appearance.
Terrance "Terry" Silver is a fictional character and the secondary antagonist of the Karate Kid media franchise, portrayed by actor and martial artist Thomas Ian Griffith. He serves as an antagonist in the film The Karate Kid Part III (1989) and the sequel television series Cobra Kai.
Jorge "Rivi" Ayala-Rivera is a former hitman for Medellín Cartel leader, Griselda Blanco. In 1993, Ayala was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
Katherine "Kat" Flores, known professionally as Tatu Baby, is an American tattoo artist and reality television personality. She was a contestant on Ink Master season 2 in 2012, where she placed fourth, followed by season 3 of the same show in 2013, where she placed third. She currently stars as a main cast member in Cartel Crew (2019–present), another reality television show based on people who have connections to drug cartels. Tatu Baby has remained active as a tattoo artist in Miami, Florida.
The cocaine boom was a stark increase in the illegal production and trade of the drug cocaine that first began in the mid to late 1970s before then peaking during the 1980s. The boom was the result of organized smugglers who imported cocaine from Latin America to the United States, and a rising demand in cocaine due to cultural trends in the United States. Smuggling rings of Cuban exiles organized trade networks from Latin America to Miami that streamlined the import of cocaine to the United States. Americans also began favoring less of the drugs popular in the 60s counterculture such as marijuana and LSD, and instead began to prefer cocaine due to a mystique of prestige that was developing around it. This increase in cocaine trade fueled the rise of the crack epidemic and government sponsored anti-drug campaigns.
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