Book review: A short story collection that can carry a tune
“The Great Filling Station Holdup: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Jimmy Buffett” edited by Josh Pachter. Down & Out Books, 274 pages, $16.95
You can’t get more Florida than the songs of Jimmy Buffett. And this tidy collection of 16 short stories showcases Buffett’s songs, often varying from the source material, from authors such as Don Bruns, Jeff Hess, Leigh Lundin, Rick Ollerman, Neil Plakcy, Elaine Viets, M.E. Browning, and more, most of whom call the Sunshine State home.
Each story takes its title from the song that inspired it, though not all are set in Florida. In addition to his writings, Buffett is known for his activism in ecological causes. In the introduction, editor Josh Pachter says that a third of the royalties from the collection’s sales will be divided between two charities — Save the Manatee Club (savethemanatee. org), co-founded in 1981 by Buffett and former Florida Gov. Bob Graham, and Singing for Change (singingforchange.org), a private foundation Buffett established in 1995 to help support other organizations.
Go find that lost shaker of salt, then delve into the stories in “The Great Filling Station Holdup.” You might want to have Buffett’s music in the background to enhance the experience. A handy guide gives the authors’ biographies and credentials.
An airstrip in the Bahamas, a Key West bar and a father’s revenge converge nicely in “A Pirate Looks at Forty” by Rick Ollerman. The closing of the auto parts store Vincent Fowler manages in Iowa will put 25 people, including him, out of work in Elaine Viets’ amusing “We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us About.” Vincent, who has a bit of larceny in his heart, and his wife move to Fort Lauderdale where they find a different kind of paradise.
Also set in Iowa, Don Bruns’ “Cheeseburger in Paradise” revolves around hit man Ginger Gallagher, who can’t resist those cheeseburgers, even though he has a job to do.
Pachter’s vision of “The Great Filling Station Holdup” is a nifty look at solving a crime that satisfies everyone involved — even the robbers.
CEO Dick Jeffries needs all the good publicity his team can muster to repair his “kindly-grandfather image” in the humorous “Public Relations,” by Neil Plakcy.
Peter “Einstein” Calihan is an expert on the waves until the unthinkable happens in the profound revenge tale “Einstein Was a Surfer,” by M.E. Browning.