In Pool Fishing, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett brings us into a world with characters who live on thefringes of society-physically, psychologically, or financially. The setting is either the wrong side of town in coastal California or the California desert where characters have the freedom to act out dark schemes they wouldn't imagine, or even dare, in the dense confines of the city.

The stories are woman-centered, location-driven, and connected by place-a converted motel in Orange County, California, and the desert in and around Palm Springs, two hours away. Bodies of water figure in most of these pieces while quirky, sexy, and dark characters are held captive by their own desires, until something shifts and they break free, finding or creating opportunities where none seemed to exist, and making choices, though not necessarily the best ones.

In "The Water Holds You Still," Greta drives from Orange County to Palm Springs to help her mother and meets a pool cleaner who has a motive and a weapon-the pool itself. In "Blue Martini," Pepper escapes a controlling boyfriend only to confront him at the end in the bar where she works. And in "51 Winfield," a young widow obsessed with her consignment store's wares is visited by her dead husband who talks to her via a bowler's shirt. Dark, vivid, and unsettling, Pool Fishing is a crowning achievement.