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Scorpion Reef

Charles Williams

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What Members Thought

Jun 15, 2017 Dave rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-fiction-all, 100-top-crime-fiction, crime-fiction-pulp

When a tall sexy Nordic blonde asks you to help her and her husband escape the clutches of a team of professionals mobbed-up guys, what should you do? Not everyone is competent enough to help this couple find the missing plane lost somewhere near a reef in the Gulf. You can't just leave her to her own devices, can you? Does it change things for you when you find she didn't quite tell you the whole story? Or are you too bewitched to think straight?

Gulf Coast Girl, first Published in 1955, is yet When a tall sexy Nordic blonde asks you to help her and her husband escape the clutches of a team of professionals mobbed-up guys, what should you do? Not everyone is competent enough to help this couple find the missing plane lost somewhere near a reef in the Gulf. You can't just leave her to her own devices, can you? Does it change things for you when you find she didn't quite tell you the whole story? Or are you too bewitched to think straight?

Gulf Coast Girl, first Published in 1955, is yet another testament to the excellence of Charles Williams' writing. This book, like other Charles Williams novels, is so damn good, it's in a class by itself.
The story begins with the finding of an abandoned boat in the Gulf, well provisioned, the dinghy aboard her, the coffee pot still warm, and a satchel filled with $80,000 on the deck. There's a log and a strand of ash-blonde hair and the tale the log tells is something else entirely.

It's a tale of a couple on the run from mobsters and filled with car chases and brawls and bodies strewn about. It's also a deep sea tale about a search for buried treasure on a sunken plane and the desperate search to find it. It's a tale of trust and betrayal. And it may just be the best book you read all year.

The femme fatale here, Shannon Wayne, walked down the pier in spiked heels with " the unhurried smoothness of poured honey." "She was a cathedral of a girl." Over six feet in heels and with the complexion of a Norse goddess. "She could make your breath catch in your throat." But she waved "that wedding ring in your face while she beat you over the head with the advertising matter that stuck out of her bathing suit in every direction, but it was still nothing to blow your top about, was it?"

Yes, Bill Manning falls for her, hook, line, and sinker. Manning is 33, divorced, bitter, with nothing to look forward to. As Manning explains, he "was practically panting to believe anything she said."
Williams is a master at building tension and he does it throughout this book. The tension in this story - which is really not that complicated plot wise - is pulled tight. Whether you read this for the Pulpish aspects of the seductive blonde who the poor sucker can't say no to, the developing relationship between these two characters, the fight scenes, the desperate attempts to get away from the hoods, the deep sea excitement, this is just a terrific book. ...more

13 likes · Like · see review

Jun 17, 2017 Dave rated it it was amazing

When a tall sexy Nordic blonde asks you to help her and her husband escape the clutches of a team of professionals mobbed-up guys, what should you do? Not everyone is competent enough to help this couple find the missing plane lost somewhere near a reef in the Gulf. You can't just leave her to her own devices, can you? Does it change things for you when you find she didn't quite tell you the whole story? Or are you too bewitched to think straight?

Scorpion Reef has also been released as Gulf Coa When a tall sexy Nordic blonde asks you to help her and her husband escape the clutches of a team of professionals mobbed-up guys, what should you do? Not everyone is competent enough to help this couple find the missing plane lost somewhere near a reef in the Gulf. You can't just leave her to her own devices, can you? Does it change things for you when you find she didn't quite tell you the whole story? Or are you too bewitched to think straight?

Scorpion Reef has also been released as Gulf Coast Girl. Published in 1955, it is yet another testament to the excellence of Charles Williams' writing. This book, like other Charles Williams novels, is so damn good, it's in a class by itself.

The story begins with the finding of an abandoned boat in the Gulf, well provisioned, the dinghy aboard her, the coffee pot still warm, and a satchel filled with $80,000 on the deck. There's a log and a strand of ash-blonde hair and the tale the log tells is something else entirely. It's a tale of a couple on the run from mobsters and filled with car chases and brawls and bodies strewn about. It's also a deep sea tale about a search for buried treasure on a sunken plane and the desperate search to find it. It's a tale of trust and betrayal. And it may just be the best book you read all year.

The femme fatale here, Shannon Wayne, walked down the pier in spiked heels with " the unhurried smoothness of poured honey." "She was a cathedral of a girl." Over six feet in heels and with the
complexion of a Norse goddess. "She could make your breath catch in your throat." But she waved "that wedding ring in your face while she beat you over the head with the advertising matter that stuck out of her bathing suit in every direction, but it was still nothing to blow your top about, was it?"

Yes, Bill Manning falls for her, hook, line, and sinker. Manning is 33, divorced, bitter, with nothing to look forward to. As Manning explains, he "was practically panting to believe anything she said."

Williams is a master at building tension and he does it throughout this book. The tension in this story - which is really not that complicated plot wise - is pulled tight. Whether you read this for the Pulpish aspects of the seductive blonde who the poor sucker can't say no to, the developing relationship between these two characters, the fight scenes, the desperate attempts to get away from the hoods, the deep sea excitement, this is just a terrific book. ...more

10 likes · Like · see review