I reviewed issue #3 of Private Beach back in September 2001, when I gave it a good review and made a mental note to buy it in future.  I then completely forgot about it for 15 months, which makes me an idiot, though I will plead in my defence the book's evidently glacial schedule - by the time issue #4 came out, I'd entirely forgotten that I'd been planning to buy it.

Fortunately this is the start of a new storyline, and there's a trade paperback of the first six issues coming out in the spring, which I really will, honestly, try and remember to buy.  Private Beach's tagline is "Strange stories about normal people", which is accurate as far as it goes, but doesn't really give you much idea of where this book is coming from.

Basically, Private Beach is doing two completely different genres simultaneously.  95% of this storyline is genre 1, the slice-of-life story (subgenre: road trip).  Trudy, Sharona and Siobhan are being paid to drive a vintage car across the country.  Cue many pages of driving across the US, stopping off at diners, visiting roadside attractions, and generally just chatting about thing which have no real connection to the plot at all.

This side of the book is pleasantly meandering.  Not a great deal really happens, but it doesn't matter, because the dialogue's good, and the characters are great company.   Plus, it lulls you neatly into a false sense of security before the story jarringly changes gear in the closing pages.  I'm not going to spoil the effect by going any further, but it really does amount to a completely different story charging in from nowhere to knock the book off course.

By all rights these two concepts simply should not be able to co-exist in the same story, but they do, and they do it well.  And on a second reading through, you can start to see some of the background details which make much more sense in genre 2.  Oh, and it looks great as well, not to mention that Hahn has a great sensing of pacing.

This time I am going to buy the series.  I encourage you to join me.

Rating: A

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