Although they are above sea level and have no salt, these great expanses of water bear all the characteristics of seas and for centuries have been regarded as such. They have port cities, bays, lighthouses and shipwrecks. Their watershed is threaded with rivers, streams, and dotted with smaller lakes. There are forests, cliffs, ancient mountains and, since the intrusion of humans, plenty of stories. This book contains thirteen of the darker variety—fitting for a place with so much cloud cover and such snowy winters. These tales are populated by ghosts, murderers, drunks and dope-smoking greasers. One finds a family vexed by a deathless supernatural creature who has three distinct ways of destroying lives, another introduces us to an ornithologist whom only birds are safe around, while a third features a prolific womanizer finally meeting his match on a remote stretch of river. Over the course of these stories the reader moves from season to season and location to location, something unpleasant waiting at every stop. There may even be a rare happy ending somewhere, although that is entirely up to the reader.
