Surface Tension

by Christine Kling

Book Overview

A Mystery Guild Selection Seychelle Sullivan captains her forty-six-foot salvage boat out of Fort Lauderdale's New River. On a steamy Florida morning she is racing her competitor to a mayday call from... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345448278
• ISBN13: 9780345448279
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 0.8" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

Surface Tension

I enjoyed this story set in Florida very much. Miss Kling writes about a very likable female character who is capable of getting out of some tough spots. I learned a lot about salvaging boats and Fort Lauderdale...for me this was a plus since I've never been to Florida. It's a different way of life that was interesting to read about. I've already purchased the next in the series I enjoyed this one so much.

Riveting Suspense - Couldn't Stop Reading 'til the End

Christine Kling creates a cadre of believable characters with outstanding personalities who fit together as tightly as a person wearing a skin diver's suit. From page one, the reader is drawn to Seychelle Sullivan, a 30 year old, female tugboat captain who is repairing the flusher on her vessel. It should have been fixed by B.J., her handsome shipmate of Samoan descent, who often accompanies her on towing jobs. Seychelle is interrupted by a May day call on the VHF channel ... which grabs the reader's attention and holds the suspense to the very last page. This book is a totally satisfying reading experience. The author's obvious familiarity with nautical terms, which she liberally sprinkles throughout the book, enlivens the mysterious new environment into which the reader enters. The heroine is even more engaging because she works in a "man's world", in a unique occupation that is nearly extinct due to modernization. Little by little, we learn that Seychelle and her two brothers inherited the tugboat named, Gorda, from her dad who died three years ago of cancer. Right from the start, the reader identifies with Seychelle as she struggles to attain towing jobs in a very competitive industry. Seychelle is the first responder to the distress call ... she discovers an unmanned yacht out in the water, one which her former boyfriend had captained ... worse than that, she discovers a pool of blood and the body of a young lady who was stabbed to death Seychelle's mind works over-time, fearing the worst - that her former boyfriend, Neal Garrett may have committed the murder. She follows protocol and reports the event through proper channels. The Coast Guard and Fort Lauderdale detectives enter the scene, after which she is thoroughly grilled by Detective Collazo. It gradually dawns on her that she is the "prime suspect" in this gruesome murder. As anyone would do, she takes great risks to follow every hunch and clue, to collect evidence, any information ... to clear her good name and discover the truth. As a first novel, the book is astonishing in its depth, breadth, and superb detail - holding the reader's attention from beginning to end. As other reviewers stated, "I could not put it down" which is the highest compliment one can give any book. Erika Borsos (erikab93)

An impressive debut

Seychelle Sullivan is the captain of a salvage boat in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. One morning, she receives a Mayday call from a yacht at sea. The yacht is a vessel Sey is very much familiar with in that her old boyfriend, Neil, is the pilot. The call is made from a desperate sounding woman. Sey locates the boat and discovers the bloody body of a young woman. Neil is nowhere to be found. Things get worse when Sey finds herself the primary suspect of the police. She must discover, on her own, what happened aboard the ship and locate Neil. She soon finds her life in danger. Christine Kling proves in her first outing that she is a writer to be reckoned with. Not only does she have an apparent natural talent at storytelling, but can create memorable, yet, realistic characterizations. SURFACE TENSION is a character driven regional mystery in the same vein as the hard-boiled female protagonists of Marcia Muller, Sue Grafton or Sara Paretsky. It is obvious Ms. Kling knows about boats in that they are major players in this book. The southern Florida locale very much plays a part in this work and is utilized quite effectively. Pacing is brisk and the plot carefully constructed. Florida mystery writers are among the best in the genre. I predict Christine Kling will prove to be no exception to that statement. An impressive debut.

Surface Tension

For her first novel, I thought this was a great read. I lived in Florida for almost 20 years and found Ms. Kling was extremely accurate in her diescriptions of the various places in and around Ft. Lauderdale. The novel held my interest and was suspensful, her characters believable. I am looking forward to more books from Ms. Kling

Surface Tension is impossible to put down!

How well does mystery writer Christine Kling know South Florida? Just as Raymond Chandler exposed the soft underbelly of Los Angeles in a way that readers can never forget, Kling offers readers a tour of a dark, gritty Fort Lauterdale that the tourists never see. Sam Spade would love Seychelle Sullivan, the heroine of Kling's new novel, Surface Tension. Sullivan is determined, resourceful and honorable in a world where many men have no honor at all. As the novel begins, Sullivan is the captain of a salvage ship responding to a distress call from a multi-million dollar yacht. She is determined to rescue the yacht's captain, a man she once loved. It is a bitter irony that Sullivan's desire to save a live soon threatens to destroy her own. She is forced to confront a world of greed, corruption and cruelty that would have frightened Dante himself. Kling is such a gifted writer that the reader imagines that she is perched at his elbow, telling the story to him alone. Readers should be warned that this book is impossible to put down. Sleep is less important than finding out what happens to Seychelle Sullivan. Kling has spent twenty years of her life on or around boats and her experience shows. She writes about the world of boating, fishing and skin diving with an authority that is one of the pleasures of this fast-paced thriller. If I could send Ms. Kling a message via ESP, it would be: "When is the sequel coming out?"