In The Red Reef, a 23-page sea adventure, Captain Thomas Larkin is racked by guilt even though he committed no crime. The master of ‘The Red Reef’ is distraught with grief ever since a gale sank his ship. The shipwreck costs lives and sends Larkin, one of the survivors, into gloom. Although he can still command a ship, if he wants to, he decides to sail as an ordinary seaman, “sweating out his guilt in the blistering sun on deck” and trying to forget his past.
But his past catches up with him. One day, as Larkin is drowning his sorrow in liquor at a port-side tavern, Giselle Beauchene, a young and sensual woman, walks up to him and asks him to take her to the spot where the ship sank. She wants to pay tribute to her father, Charles Beauchene, who was a passenger on ‘The Red Reef.’
Although the deep-sea journey will not bring her old man back from the dead, Larkin reluctantly agrees to take Giselle because it will in some way enable him to overcome his guilt. Giselle hires a schooner called the ‘Gallister’ captained by a dubious-looking Scotsman named MacGreevey and the trio and crew waste no time in setting sail for the Navabutu Straits.
However, once the ‘Gallister’ reaches the graveyard at sea, Giselle reveals her true colours and her hidden motive. The morning after a night of lovemaking with Larkin, she turns on the tormented captain with a gun and tells him what she has in mind. The journey of redemption soon turns into a nightmare for Thomas Larkin.
Seasoned author James Reasoner tells a classic pulp story without much fuss. There is little description of people and places. The characters of Larkin and Giselle are well drawn. It’s short and gritty, and it has some good action and an unexpected twist in the end. I liked The Red Reef as much as I liked Reasoner’s The Man on the Moon which I reviewed on October 6. Both stories are crisp and very entertaining to read.
The Red Reef was originally published in Hardluck Stories, June 2008, but you can pick up the Kindle edition at Amazon.
Would like to have seen what Joseph Conrad would have done with this material.
ReplyDeleteRon, I have not read Joseph Conrad in years and I have been meaning to read his HEART OF DARKNESS.
DeleteCool. I always like reading reviews of shorts, as I'm starting to read more of them on my Kindle.
ReplyDeleteKelly, I enjoy reading short stories and short fiction, and I prefer reviewing them to long novels owing to the time factor.
DeleteAnother one to look out for - it might help me cheat my way to my target number of books read this year!
ReplyDeleteCol, I, too, have been "cheating" my way up the number of books read through short fiction. THE RED REEF is a very good story.
DeleteI liked this one was well.
ReplyDeleteas well, I meant to say
ReplyDeleteCharles, there is no beating about the bush in this story. A fine tale.
DeleteA favorite.
ReplyDeleteRandy, thanks for writing. I hope to read one of Mr. Reasoner's full-length novels soon. I have plenty to choose from.
DeleteAs I have often said, I don't do well with short stories but I would like to find a longer work by Reasoner to read.
ReplyDeleteTracy, James Reasoner has written some three hundred stories and novels. I want to read his full-length novels, too, beginning with TEXAS WIND and DUST DEVILS.
DeleteI'm not a short story person either, Prashant, but I still enjoy reading your take on them.
ReplyDeleteYvette, thank you. Like Col says, it helps me finish reading fiction faster than I'd with long novels.
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