I am not entirely sure where to begin in my praise of the truly wonderful FROM SEA TO STORMY SEA. The story selection? The author selection? The book’s design? The editor? Each and all jump up and down in my head, hands waving, yelling “Me first!”

Let’s start with the general and work our way into it. FROM SEA TO STORMY SEA is the third anthology (preceded by IN SUNLIGHT OR IN SHADOW and ALIVE IN SHAPE AND COLOR) created by iconic author Lawrence Block that follows a specific pattern. He picks some paintings and authors, and lets each author select a painting to inspire a story. It has worked very well before, but this newly published work is by far the best of an excellent lot. Pegasus did a beautiful job with the book’s design. There is a heft to it that one usually finds only in a book that pretends to be a lofty tome, created in part by the upscale paper. It befits the stories, all of which are jewels in their own way.

As Block hastens to tell us in his Foreword, for the most part, the authors who were selected comprise a different “guest list” from the previous two volumes. Once again, there is a mix of writers you almost certainly know well with some who are about to become new friends. The range of topics keeps the book from being readily classified under any particular category of genre fiction. “Literature,” at the end of the day, works just fine here. The length of each story is reined in as well, though there is no sense of abbreviation in any of them. What we have here is an exhibit of moderation in terms of word count, a perfect illustration that less is more.

"I am not entirely sure where to begin in my praise of the truly wonderful FROM SEA TO STORMY SEA.... There are 17 stories here. I won’t even try to pick a favorite, even among those I haven’t described or mentioned here."

Now, let’s talk about the authors and the stories. What really sunk the hook for me is the manner in which many of the writers moved out of their creative comfort zones. Block himself does this in “The Way We See the World,” which is about a chance encounter that leads to a first date. I had to read it (and several others) twice, the second time to fully appreciate without preconceived expectation what I had just experienced. I can say the same about “Girl with an Ax” by John Sandford, which does not take place in Minnesota. Instead, it concerns a young woman and the sudden death of her elderly neighbor, and how simple acts of respect and kindness are sometimes rewarded in ways one does not expect.

There are other surprises for different reasons. I was stunned to find a new story by Barry N. Malzberg here. Malzberg at one time was an extremely prolific and respected science fiction and crime fiction author who more or less dropped out of sight (though not out of mind) a couple of decades ago. “Riverfront,” his chilling and understated contribution, is the shortest tale in this collection but is worth the price of admission all by itself, as is Charles Ardai’s “Mother of Pearl.” Ardai, the creator and editor of the indispensable Hard Case Crime imprint, uses New York as the backdrop for this historical tale about a woman seeking her heritage, and he adroitly presents a surprising number of twists, turns and mysteries in a short space, all without gun play or violence. However, if that’s what you’re looking for, you can find it in Micah Nathan’s haunting “Get Him,” which begins with a journey to consummate a love affair begun by letter and ends in a somewhat different place, to say the least. I am totally unfamiliar with Nathan’s work but will seek it out on the basis of this story alone.

Some stories don’t have surprises but carry the reader along on their own current. Take, for example, “On Little Terry Road” by Tom Franklin. Franklin does not write frequently but does write superlatively, and his story, which deals with the inappropriate application of law enforcement for the greater good and the lesser evil, is unforgettable. “He Came in Through the Bathroom Window” by Scott Frank is about two very different people whose respective reaches exceed their grasps and who wind up getting caught in their own juices thanks to a haunting painting. Christa Faust, certainly one of a kind, favors us with “Garnets,” the tale of a quietly chilling chance encounter between two people with a shared interest whose meeting can end any number of different ways, and probably does.

If you like “ticking clock” stories, you will love “You’re a Walking Time Bomb” by Janice Eidus, about a life coach who is extremely conscious of the sand slipping through her hourglass, and for good reason. And Jan Burke’s “Superficial Injuries” has a bit of everything, from a notorious criminal to a mystery to...well, that would be telling, and I don’t want to do that, as it would give away a carefully crafted ending.

There are 17 stories here. I won’t even try to pick a favorite, even among those I haven’t described or mentioned here. You should buy this book, one copy for yourself and others for your reading friends. And sincerely, I will recommend in this case that you buy physical copies. It’s not that e-books don’t cut it; they do. It’s just that FROM SEA TO STORMY SEA is so beautifully printed that you will want to hold it while you read it.