The Stingray Shuffle

The Stingray Shuffle

File:Stingrayshufflecover.jpg Cover of the US edition of The Stingray Shuffle
Author	Tim Dorsey
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Crime novel
Publisher	William Morrow (USA) & Robert Hale (UK)
Publication date	February 2003 (US) & December 2003 (UK)
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	320 pp (USA hardback edition)
ISBN	0-06-052045-0 (USA hardback edition) & ISBN ? (UK paperback edition)
OCLC	50072589
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 21
LC Class	PS3554.O719 S87 2003
Preceded by	Triggerfish Twist
Followed by	Cadillac Beach

The Stingray Shuffle is Tim Dorsey's fifth novel, published in 2003.

Plot summary

Sales of The Stingray Shuffle, a good novel by good novelist Ralph Krunkleton, have soared recently. The book's publishers, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, 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; dealers are using a bookstore as a front, hollowing out copies of Shuffle to hide drugs.

Meanwhile, Serge A. Storms and pothead pal Lenny Lipowicz resume their pursuit of $5 million worth of insurance fraud payout. Thrown into the mix are Johnny Vegas the accidental virgin, Paul the passive-aggressive private eye, Ernest Hemingway lookalike Jethro Maddox, and the world's least competent drug cartel. Most of these characters find their way onto the Stingray Shuffle, the temporarily rechristened train to Miami.

The Stingray Shuffle ties up a three-book plot arc that began with Florida Roadkill, continued with Hammerhead Ranch Motel, and was then shelved for two years while Dorsey wrote the only slightly relative Triggerfish Twist and Orange Crush.

It is ultimately revealed that Serge's plan for the money is to buy a trip into space (and a monogrammed spacesuit) from the Russians.