When Elves Attack: A Joyous Christmas Greeting from the Criminal Nutbars of the Sunshine State (Serge Storms, 14)

Such an odd assortment of characters, with intriguing happenings and events. Odd, weird, engaging, different, crazy? All of the above. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this odd and different Christmas story. Every event is both believable and unbelievable, thrilling and interesting, and strange and commonplace. This is a fun read, entirely different from the average Christmas romance. In fact, it is not a romance, but a story about the love of Christmas by a strange little man. Loved it.

When Elves Attack by Tim Dorsey is another installment in the wacky adventures of Surge and his gang of Floridian misfits. If you are familiar with the series you will find the expected amount of funny, though not as much time is spent on the road investigating Florida's historical landmarks. If you are not familiar with the series prepare yourself for serious laughter and don't read this book where people will see you rolling around on the floor, holding your sides. If you like things PC, unless you enjoy being shocked, you might want to go for something else in holiday reading. Christmas is a time for home, so Surge rents a home across the street, from his old friend Jim, who is the regular sort of family man that Surge admirers and envies. Since Christmas is also a time for family, Surge recruits County and City, two dazzling, dangerous ladies which he has shared a long relationship with, to join him and his sidekick Coleman for the holidays. Surge adds a whole new dimension to the art of tree decorating and street caroling while watching over Jim and his family who are being stalked. Meanwhile old friends Eunice, Edna and Ethel decide to escape all the kindness of the old ladies home and get some real living done before it's too late. As Surge collects the home, family and old friends needed for his plan to do Christmas a few holiday wreakers have to be dealt with and eventually everyone ends up dressed in elf costumes. It's fun and funny, but the bad guys aren't as bad as usual and the engineering is not quite up to Surge's expected level of expertise, but it's Christmas, and this story has plenty of Christmas spirit.

If you have never encountered Tim Dorsey and his zany characters, you may want to start with one of his older books to ease yourself in!! This book does stand on its own, though. If you're already a fan, this is a must read. It is shorter than some of the others, which makes it a quick pre-holiday read that you can then regift to other family members who also love Dorsey, but are too poor to purchase, i.e., my son Daniel. In fact both my husband and I have read it and all we have to do is wrap it and try not to spill the beans on the plot. Even though this book seems formulaic, if you are a true fan you just need a hit of Serge and Coleman now and again to get through the holidays!!!

Serge A. Storms and Christmas are made for each other. His drug-addled sidekick Coleman? Not so much, unless you want to count baking weed into the gingerbread used for making a gingerbread house. But Christmas re-kindles Serge's hopes and dreams of being a family man, so once again he hits Triggerfish Lane and moves in near mild-mannered Jim Davenport and his family. While chaos seems to perpetually follow in Serge's wake, Jim is also facing some chaotic times of his own. So good buddy Serge (probably not Jim's words) takes it upon himself to help Jim out. It's not easy (nothing with Serge ever is), but Serge is going to make this Christmas as wonderful as possible...even if he has to kill a few people along the way (which he does). City and Country return, and the G-Unit add their geriatric shenanigans to the mix once again. Not your typical Christmas book, but good for some laughs!

I loved this book! What's not to love when you mix serial criminals dressed as elves, a mild mannered consultant, his brash wife, passive aggressive mother, 15 year old troublemaker daughter, a couple of "rode hard and put away wet" women on the lam, the G-Unit group of 90 year old women, and a mixed bag of holiday destroying grinches that need to be taught a lesson. Serge is a criminal with short attention span, a sense of honor and a nostalgic view of Christmas. This is not your typical holiday story. It is, however, I believe my favorite story this holiday season!! If you haven't experienced a Tim Dorsey tale, you are seriously depriving yourself!!

Maybe I'm only giving this book an "It's Okay" because I may have "come in in the middle of the movie". Starting with Dorsey's writing in his 17th novel with this bunch of characters. Speaking of movies...this writes a lot like a screenplay. I only laughed out loud twice. And I could really see this coming across better visually. Does Mr. Dorsey write screenplays? I think this could be a good comedy. He has come up with a bunch of great, colorful characters. On screen I think it would get a lot of laughs. But...I think I'll try and get his 1st story about Serg, etal. May be an acquired taste I'll learn to enjoy.

I really like Dorsey's sociopath, serial killer hero Serge. He always makes me laugh. This story is no different. He and his sidekick Coleman are preparing for the holiday season, dressed up in elf costumes. The idea is that since crooks are blending in with the crowds to pick out victims, Serge and Coleman will blend in to pick out the crooks. And it works! Then, meeting up with an old friend (???), Serge decides he wants to be normal like Jim. This entails renting a house across from Jim and spying on him so he can trot over in time for dinner. Of course, he brings his and Coleman's share: leftovers from KFC. For some strange reason, Jim's wife doesn't like Serge and Coleman and things kind of go downhill quickly. As always, the bad guys are taken care of (in unusual fashions that fit the crimes) and Serge and Coleman emerge victorious. Nice read.

After reading many reviews of Tim Dorsey's books, I thought I would try When Elves Attack for my holiday reading. There was virtually no plot and contrary to the description of it, it is not really about the holidays. It happens to be set in December and that's about it. The writing style was not what I expected either based on reviews that drew comparisons with Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. It is devoid of wit and not terribly funny. Spend your money elsewhere.

What a great 'feel good' jolly jape of a read; not quite what I expected, but funny as hell. I'm now intrigued enough to follow the Serge collection!!

I'm a huge fan of Tim Dorsey, he hasn't let me down on this festive yomp! Serge is up to his usual, all set around a Christmas theme. I've actually read this four times, it's a Christmas treat to myself,,,

Bought as a gift.

Fantastic book, highly recommended.