Tapping The Source by Kem Nunn

 

Author : Kem Nunn

Title : Tapping The Source 

Published : 1984

Publisher : Dell Books 

Pages : 352

Genre : Mystery Thriller 

     People came to Huntington Beach in search of the endless party, the ultimate high and the perfect wave. Ike Tucker came to look for his sister and for the three men who may have murdered her. In that place of gilded surfers and sun-bleached blondes, Ike looked into the shadows and found parties that drifted towards pointless violence, joyless violations, and highs you might never come down from... and a sea of old hatreds and dreams gone bad. 

     From time to time I think most of us have dreamed of skipping out in our lives and going to settle in some coastal town. Where the sun always shines and the beaches stretch out into the infinite. And sure why not its all seems like a great idea but there is another side to this dream one non of us give much thought to. All towns have a dark side no matter how picture-perfect they seem. And for most coastal towns it's simply a matter of there being no real jobs that don't involve tourists. So when the sun goes down and the out of towners go home what is left. 

     In Nunn's stunning debut novel all be it from way back in nineteen eighty-four that's just what he turned his gaze to. When we first meet Ike he seems all too naive, a young boy looking for his lost sister.  In many ways, he can be compared to Theseus going into the labyrinth and coming face to face with the Mintor. What he believes will be a simple journey soon spirals out into something far more dark and sinister. Nunn shows us the ugly truth of drug abuse and corruption in small-town America. How what might seem like a dream destination to us can soon turn into a nightmare. His cast of characters plays their parts to a beautiful beat of their own. And to me feel like they have been pulled from the likes of Raymond Chander dark gritty L. A and thrown into the blistering sun of Huntington Beach. What are given is people that feel all too human and never completely trustworthy. 

     This is one of those books that makes you feel its world on your very skin. As I started on this journey I could feel the sand stuck to my toes, the harsh smell of sunscreen, and sickly sweet icecream. You feel every beat of the sun on your back and you soon become aware that the longer you sending in this small beachside town the more oppressive it becomes. What starts as a golden brown tan soon becomes sunburn. There is something truly rotten at its heart and Nunn uses this to full force as he shows us not only what this place has become but what it is full campable of dong to anyone who is unfortunate enough to enter. 

     It's funny for me as someone who truly loves those old noir stories of the forties and fifties. I always see them in my head as perpetually taking place and night and more often than not with rain drumming against the windows. I never thought for a second that you could transplant them into the light and they still have the same effect. But Nunn has proved me wrong with Tapping The Source a story that not only makes ou work to untangle its web of lies and desire but also at times lets that cold feeling creeping up the back of your spine. It is little wonder then that this book has quite the cult following. Not only capturing this idea of crime by the coast but also instilling it with surf culture. This idea that whilst we tend to think of Surfing as having this chilled out hippy culture it too has its darker side. And like any other subset of people it has, it's on rules that must be followed or incur the wrath of its errs. 

     What more can I say its a book that got in under my skin and more than once found myself rushing to get to the end and the heart of the labyrinth. It took some of my favorite if greatly used ideas from noir novels and gave it a new life in the sun.