Looking For a Good Book

Beach noir stories. Beach. Noir. Fiction. I can’t help but be amazed at how specific the theme for this book is. Yet of course it was appealing enough that I chose to read it.

Like nearly every anthology I’ve ever read, there were a few stories that I especially liked, a story or two that fell quite short for me, and a lot that were just fine but probably not very memorable.

There really wasn’t anything that stood out to make me wonder why it was included. The very first story, “The Seven Seals” by Francesca Lia Block might have been my least favorite in the collection. It worried me that I might be in for a tough time. I think that Ms. Block’s style and my reading tastes don’t mix particularly well.

Fortunately, the next story, “A Tawny Brown Liveaboard” by Bev Vincent, alleviated some of my concerns as I quite enjoyed the story. While I’m not familiar with Bev Vincent or her character, Travis McGee, I’m very interested in reader more. This story has McGee renting an AirBNB which happens to be on a docked boat. All is fine until someone else gets on the boat and a dead body is found on the dock. Vincent’s storytelling was smooth and fun.

“Blood in the Water” by Craig Clevenger was a very well written piece. We are never quite sure how reliable the narrator is, which adds to the tone of this book. I also think any male who was more nerdy than athletic in school will identify with our narrator:

I was barely sixteen, all rib cage and bird-wing shoulder blades. Other guys tossed footballs and Frisbees, had grown-up muscles, and they seemed so much taller than they were. And the girls were swelling out of their bikinis. When they’d catch me staring, they’d just look away, forget I was there.

By far, my favorite story here was “Memento Mori Syreni” by Megan Jauregui Eccles in which a coroner and his younger assistant are called to a dead body found on the beach. As it happens, the body is a mermaid and it’s not entirely dead. The humor, the fantasy element, and the great writing really make this a winner.

The rest of the collection is good, but by no means as outstanding as the three mentioned above.

This collection includes:

Looking for a good book? The Amber Waves of Autumn, edited by David M. Olsen is a unique collection of short stories with a beach noir theme that works. The collected stories are all quite good, with a few stand-outs.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Amber Waves of Autumn

editor: David M. Olsen

publisher: Kelp Books LLC

ASIN: B0DM6HGM18

Kindle Edition, 293 pages