Tim Dorsey (born January 25, 1961) is an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while othe ...

. He is known for a series starring

Serge A. Storms Serge A. Storms is the main protagonist in most of Tim Dorsey's novels (and appears in all of them to date). 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 enc ...

, a mentally disturbed

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a person who ...

antihero An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero) or antiheroine is a main character in a story who may lack conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism, courage, and morality. Although antiheroes may sometimes perform action ...

who rampages across

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

enforcing his own moral code against a variety of low-life criminals. Tim Dorsey at Haslam's Book Store, St

Biography

Dorsey was born in

Carmel, Indiana Carmel is a suburban city in Indiana immediately north of Indianapolis. With a population of 100,777, the city spans across Clay Township in Hamilton County, Indiana, and is bordered by the White River to the east; the Hamilton-Boone county ...

and was taken to

by his mother at the age of 1. He grew up in Riviera Beach, a small town in

Palm Beach County Palm Beach County is a county located in the southeastern part of Florida and lies directly north of Broward County and Miami-Dade County. The county had a population of 1,492,191 as of the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous count ...

just north of

West Palm Beach West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

. Dorsey graduated from Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua N.H, in 1979. He attended Auburn University, where he became the editor of ''

The Auburn Plainsman The Auburn Plainsman is the student-run news organization for Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. It has notably received awards for excellence from the Associated Collegiate Press and is the most decorated student publication in the history of ...

'', the

student newspaper A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related news, but they may also repo ...

; he wrote about

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

while at Auburn. Dorsey graduated in 1983 with a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in Transportation. After graduation, he moved to

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

, and served as a police reporter for a local newspaper. In 1987, Dorsey relocated to

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough C ...

, and became a reporter for ''

The Tampa Tribune ''The Tampa Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Tampa, Florida. Along with the competing ''Tampa Bay Times'', the ''Tampa Tribune'' was one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area. The newspaper also published a ''St. Pe ...

''. Until he resigned from the paper in 1999 to write full-time, he worked variously as political reporter, correspondent in the ''Tribune'''s

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the populatio ...

bureau, copy desk editor, and, finally, night metro editor and news coordinator. Currently, Dorsey lives in Tampa with his wife and two daughters. He is a

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eig ...

fan due to his mother and the nuns and brothers from Bishop Guertin High School he attended as a child being from

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

. He is also a

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team's home v ...

fan from living in the same city.interview "In the footsteps of subversives" by Anna Mundow, ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' February 25, 2007.

Serge Storms

Most of Dorsey's novels feature Serge A. Storms as the primary character. The character has several coexisting

mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...

es that render him

obsessive Obsession may refer to: Psychology * Celebrity worship syndrome, obsessive addictive disorder to a celebrity's personal and professional life * Fixation (psychology), a persistent attachment to an object or idea * Idée fixe (psychology), a p ...

, psychopathic, schizophrenic, and frequently homicidal, but Storms serves as the

anti-hero An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero) or antiheroine is a main character in a story who may lack conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism, courage, and morality. Although antiheroes may sometimes perform actio ...

in Dorsey's works due to his strong sense of

moral absolutism Moral absolutism is an ethical view that some (potentially all) actions are intrinsically right or wrong. Stealing, for instance, might be considered to be always immoral, even if done for the well-being of others (e.g., stealing food to feed a ...

and justice. Serge is intelligent, and frequently devises wildly inventive ways of condemning villains (or at least who he perceives as such) to death. His co-pilot in the majority of his adventures is Coleman, whose personality is the exact opposite of Serge. Whereas Serge is a high-strung straight-edged coffee addict, Coleman is an alcoholic drug user who goes to extreme lengths to maintain his buzz.

Novels by Tim Dorsey

Short stories and Essay collections by Tim Dorsey

*''Florida Roadkill: A Survival Guide'' (2010) *''Squall Lines: Selected articles & essays'' (2012) *''Tropical Warning: An Original Serge Storms Story and Other Debris'' (2013)

External links

Tim Dorsey's websiteTim Dorsey on AmazonHarper Collins page

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorsey, Tim 1961 births 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American crime fiction writers American male novelists Auburn University alumni Living people Writers from Montgomery, Alabama Writers from Tampa, Florida 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Florida Novelists from Alabama Bishop Guertin High School alumni