The Edge Of The Sea: A Place Where the Mermen are psychotic

The Edge of the Sea by Laurell K. Hamilton

Laurell K. Hamilton is a good writer and I’m convinced of that. Even now she is good. She’s just in a rut of writing stuff that’s X- rated at the moment rather than actually writing a story. Edge of The Sea is a short story she recently wrote that hits much closer to home for anyone who read her earlier stuff. It can be found in the Strange Candy Collection.
The story starts with Adria, who find that her room mate Rachel is missing in middle of the night. It is a beach front house so when she can’t find her, she decides to search the beach. Then she finds that her friend is raped and killed by odd pale man, who in discovery dashes into the sea. His feet turned to fish tale as he ran or I should say swim away. Even though Adria denies it at first, she realizes he’s merman. And he is the one that the news is calling the “Beach rapist” committing killings of young women. And as the killings continues, Adria is determined not be his victim. And if possible, she will get revenge if she can.
This is a short story that appears to take place in an Anita Blake world. Because they briefly mention other monsters such as vampires and monsters to this in one, as in one of Anita’s books they did mention there were mer people. But of course in those books they just never went to the coast to encounter these mer folk. But still, this is the same e world taken to a character that lives there.
So the good? It is an expansion of the Anita Blake world we never seen. Plus I like the mermaid idea. I find that it’s a great concept a lot of authors don’t touch. It’s fairly original. And detail is so well done. From the sound of ocean, to smell of the air, to Adria’s fear and lastly how gorgeous this merman is. She is so full of detail. It’s some thing I loved about Laurell’s work in the past. She can describe everything perfectly. (Especially the men, but I’m not going there in this review) And one last thing. There is a rape scene and I have to say this to Hamilton. Thank you for not some how morphing it into a descriptive sex scene like you do in all our newer books. Those are getting old.
The bad? Well it kind of feels like an Anita story without Anita. Adria didn’t have much character to her at all, but done what Anita would have in the end. So I guess if you read Hamilton’s other works, it’s predictable.
So overall. It’s a tragic loss of a friend and crime spree of a rapist who is a merman. Weird, but still fine. I mean it’s not memorable or anything. But it’s fun.

Overall Rating: I Nice Step Into Fantasy Where the Mermen are psychotic

3 smoothies out of four