|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
SALVAGE by Stephen Maher opens with a nail-biting, death-defying scene at sea in which we are introduced to Phillip Scarnum, who is trying to salvage a grounded 40-foot fishing boat from the deck of a sailing schooner. It is April on the North Atlantic, the wind is blowing, then it starts to rain, turning to snow as Scarnum struggles to get a line on her and then tug her off the Sambro Ledges. If you love a good sea story, you will be hooked by this time. And Maher will offer you several more heart-racing scenes at sea.
Phillip Scarnum is the kind of colourful character found all along the South Shore. He makes his home in the back end of tony Chester, living aboard his boat, scrabbling a living from repairing rich men's boats. Educated but masking it with a very strong local accent, he has been commitment-challenged since being dumped by his girlfriend seven years ago.
But he is not without female companionship. To say he is attractive to women would be putting it mildly. He manages to have sex with all the women we meet in the novel, graphic, hot and fun sex. He and his friends also have the foul mouths we expect from men who go to sea.
Scarnum not only salvages the boat, from which he expects to gain $175,000, but he also finds 100 kilos of cocaine aboard. And he isn't going to give this stash up to the Mounties, the Mexicans who own it, or to the owner of an international seafood company who also lives in Chester.
This rollicking story, let's call it Sea/Noir, is exciting, fast paced and intelligent. It is also lawless. From Scarnum and his ilk, the Mounties are absolutely useless and they will not solve the murder of the skipper of the salvaged boat, nor could they find the cocaine if they were given a treasure map. Of course, Phillip also has a heart both cold as ice and forged of gold.
He is loveable, hot and the most ingenious escape artist in Canadian noir fiction. And the villains are scary; for example, the old Mexican with the scar down the side of his face whom Scarnum manages to hang in a coil of rope from his bowsprit – hang, not kill. Scarface returns, as do his Mexican buddies. And then there is Falkenham, the seafood company owner, trying to wreck vengeance on our hero.
Then we meet the Zincks, brothers of the murdered fisherman, from a rough and wild family who inhabit a hidden harbor south of Chester. These guys are at least as wild and scary as the Mexicans. The final shootout is lawless and thrilling as any shootout found in the old Wild West, leaving the reader breathless.
Maher captures the South Shore of Nova Scotia, with its many hidden harbors, its history of lawlessness – first rum running and now drug smuggling – its colourful characters, and the greatest enemy of all, the North Atlantic. And if you know the area, he also presents cameos of some of the real characters in the area, thinly disguised. Halifax's most notable and eccentric defence lawyer shows his stuff, as does a powerful Mi'kmaq ex-con. His picture of Falkenham might unsettle a notable seafood company owner with its likeness.
SALVAGE is the real thing, - a picture of Nova Scotia's South Shore as it is today and really good contemporary noir fiction.
§ Susan Hoover is a playwright, independent producer and retired college English teacher. She lives in Nova Scotia.
Reviewed by Susan Hoover, August 2016
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
