Death by taxidermy, sky-diving Hemingway lookalikes, Toto the Dancing Weather Dog and killer grannies - it's just another day in Tim Dorsey's Florida. Inspired by years spent reporting on stranger-than-fiction crimes for the Tampa Tribune, Dorsey burst onto the scene with his much-acclaimed novels Florida Roadkill and Hammerhead Ranch Motel, featuring Serge Storms, the homicidal misift with the encyclopedic knowledge of the Sunshine State. Now, in Orange Crush, Tim Dorsey turns his attention to senseless violence on the campaign trail. . . For Republican Marlon Conrad, the Florida governorship is a done deal - until the day he and his team inexplicably embark on a whirlwind election tour in a bright orange camper van. But his ratings soar, and soon the press and his shell-shocked opponents set off in hot pursuit - closely followed by the police. For behind this unscheduled roadtrip lies a mysterious trail of mayhem and murder. And it bears all the hallmarks of Florida's most wanted - and most lovable - homicidal maniac.

Tim Dorsey was born in Indiana, moved to Florida at the age of 1, and grew up in a small town about an hour north of Miami called Riviera Beach. He graduated from Auburn University in 1983 with a B.S. in Transportation. From 1983 to 1987, he was a police and courts reporter for The Alabama Journal, the now-defunct evening newspaper in Montgomery. He joined The Tampa Tribune in 1987 as a general assignment reporter. He also worked as a political reporter in the Tribune's Tallahassee bureau and a copy desk editor. From 1994 to 1999, he was the Tribune's night metro editor and night news coordinator. He left the paper in August 1999 to write full time.