Darkly humorous…
I generally stay away from books that feature a conglomeration of short stories. I read so quickly that three minutes into a tale and I find I’m
already at the end. It’s rather anticlimactic because I never get the chance to feel like I have ‘bonded’ with any of the characters.
Since the book’s title, Tales from the Sea: Secrets from a Cruise Ship, had caught my eye, I perused the back cover to find out what the gist of the compilation hinged on. Apparently the author, Alexander Flint, has had the less common experience of sailing on both the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Elizabeth 2.
When the Queen Elizabeth 2 returned to her berth at the end of his trip, rumors abounded about there being twelve bodies stored in the ship’s massive freezers. Theoretically each one died of natural causes, but apparently the knowledge of these frozen corpses piqued the author’s interest. Having also listened to countless ‘tall’ tales during his two voyages, Flint saw this as an opportunity to pen humorous stories loosely using his experiences while on board these two majestic cruise ships; hence the birth of Tales from the Sea: Secrets from a Cruise Ship.
While the fictional stories found within Tales from the Sea: Secrets from a Cruise Ship are too short for me to share here; the common theme/element seemed to somehow always return to those dead bodies.
In my reading of the Tales from the Sea: Secrets from a Cruise Ship, I did find that Flint is a good writer. He has attention to detail and his characters are believable although, at times, the plot winds up becoming rather improbable. Of course, that’s usually one of the marks of a fictional story.
In summary, Tales from the Sea: Secrets from a Cruise Ship was written with a fair amount of sarcastic, dry and/or cynical wit. While I did enjoy some of short stories, others of them weren’t to my taste. All in all though, Tales from the Sea: Secrets from a Cruise Ship was a well-written and easy read that can be enjoyed by all adult readers. Four stars…