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Seacliff Park
1929. As Prohibition enters its second decade, an endless party—fueled by bootleg liquor and the criminal underworld that supplies it—roars into its final days.
Meanwhile, young newlyweds embark on an ambitious project—building a family amusement park atop a derelict WWI oil tanker, the SS Palo Alto, grounded along the shore of Monterey Bay. But unbeknownst to them, bootleggers have secretly installed a speakeasy in the heart of their ship. When open warfare erupts between rival crime syndicates, the couple is thrust into a deadly crossfire and must outwit merciless criminals to hold onto their lives—and each other.
Fans of gritty noir fiction—populated by cutthroat mob bosses, cunning femme fatales, and doomed innocents—and afficionados of atmospheric period films like L.A. Confidential, The Godfather, and Chinatown will be transported to the shadowy world of Seacliff Park.
Content Warning
This novel contains mature themes, strong language, and moderate violence that may be distressing to some readers. Discretion is advised.
Meanwhile, young newlyweds embark on an ambitious project—building a family amusement park atop a derelict WWI oil tanker, the SS Palo Alto, grounded along the shore of Monterey Bay. But unbeknownst to them, bootleggers have secretly installed a speakeasy in the heart of their ship. When open warfare erupts between rival crime syndicates, the couple is thrust into a deadly crossfire and must outwit merciless criminals to hold onto their lives—and each other.
Fans of gritty noir fiction—populated by cutthroat mob bosses, cunning femme fatales, and doomed innocents—and afficionados of atmospheric period films like L.A. Confidential, The Godfather, and Chinatown will be transported to the shadowy world of Seacliff Park.
Content Warning
This novel contains mature themes, strong language, and moderate violence that may be distressing to some readers. Discretion is advised.
467 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 18, 2025
About the author
Mark Marinovich
4 books84 followersMark Marinovich is the author of the historical thriller Seacliff Park and the new middle-grade novel The Boy Who Saved a Whale. A former journalist and communications professional, he has also written award-winning screenplays and several novels that explore history, adventure, and the relationship between people and the natural world.
A San Francisco native, Mark now lives on California's Monterey Bay, where the region's dramatic coastline and rich history inspired Seacliff Park. His volunteer work for an ocean environmental organization planted the seeds for The Boy Who Saved a Whale, which he hopes will instill an appreciation in young people for the perils of plastic pollution in our oceans.
Learn more at SeacliffParkNovel.com.
A San Francisco native, Mark now lives on California's Monterey Bay, where the region's dramatic coastline and rich history inspired Seacliff Park. His volunteer work for an ocean environmental organization planted the seeds for The Boy Who Saved a Whale, which he hopes will instill an appreciation in young people for the perils of plastic pollution in our oceans.
Learn more at SeacliffParkNovel.com.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 16, 2026
While I listed this as historical fiction do not expect to learn much actual history form it. One of the reasons I picked up this book to read is that I live in in Seacliff. The cement ship that is a centerpiece of this novel is a sort walk from my home.
It is an easy read. The writing is not great but not bad either. The chapters are short, and for most of the book I read it in short bursts.
The novel is set just before the stock market collapse of 1929. Seacliff Beach in Santa Cruz was just being developed as a resort community, and someone had the idea of towing the SS Palo Also--a cement ship that was commissioned for WW1 when steel was scarce, but then never used--to Santa Cruz and be turned into a resort. That part is based on history.
The characters in the book are pretty two-dimensional. Our hero (if you want to call him that) is the earnest young school teacher who is going to marry the daughter of the rich businessman. The father of the bride is a stereotypical nasty businessman caring nothing for money, and this earnest young man is not going to be good enough for his daughter.
Then their is an interwoven plot of two mobster gangs at war with each other, and they too, are stereotypical gangsters.
Our heroes are endearing, but the plot is slow to develop. It gets more exciting after the first half as more action builds toward a climactic ending.
It is an easy read. The writing is not great but not bad either. The chapters are short, and for most of the book I read it in short bursts.
The novel is set just before the stock market collapse of 1929. Seacliff Beach in Santa Cruz was just being developed as a resort community, and someone had the idea of towing the SS Palo Also--a cement ship that was commissioned for WW1 when steel was scarce, but then never used--to Santa Cruz and be turned into a resort. That part is based on history.
The characters in the book are pretty two-dimensional. Our hero (if you want to call him that) is the earnest young school teacher who is going to marry the daughter of the rich businessman. The father of the bride is a stereotypical nasty businessman caring nothing for money, and this earnest young man is not going to be good enough for his daughter.
Then their is an interwoven plot of two mobster gangs at war with each other, and they too, are stereotypical gangsters.
Our heroes are endearing, but the plot is slow to develop. It gets more exciting after the first half as more action builds toward a climactic ending.
January 30, 2026
3.5 rounded up
I live a 5-minute walk from one of the few concrete ships built in WW2 for U.S troops when steel was hard to get. This one, not able to be used before the war ended, wound up attached to a pier here until a few years back (when storms, destroying that pier, were so bad that we joined 1000+ other neighbors in watching President’s Biden motorcade come to see the destruction!). This recently published historical novel is woven around the fascinating history of this ship: the S.S. Palo Alto. So of course I had to read it. Expectations shouldn’t be too high when local interest is the leading pull, but this surprised me with how good I found it (at least the first ¾—read on to understand what I liked and did not).
First, one of my many photos of the ship in the “before” times when we could still walk the pier near it.
The story is of a very wealthy Reno businessman/banker who purchases the decommissioned ship in 1929. His intention is to build upon it a concession arcade, ballroom, restaurant, and indoor pool as a tourist attraction. He has it towed from its San Francisco area resting place to the nascent budding resort beach town he loves: Aptos in Santa Cruz county, California, in a section known as Seacliff (where I live 😌). The bones of this are historical: the ship was such a place from 1930-32. In the novel, the new son-in-law, not nearly ambitious enough in the (distasteful) banker’s opinion, is put in charge of this business, to lure him away from his beloved but low paying teaching profession and toward “getting successful.” Son-in-law Charlie steps up to the plate, but interweaving storylines let us know that two rival mobsters (the Los Angeles & Chicago big guys) are battling things out, with the ship being eyed (unbeknownst to Charlie) as a place to have not just gambling but to serve the illegal Prohibition liquor these mobsters import from Canada. The novel has all the elements of noir fiction, along with interesting historical details: femme fatal, mob bosses, evil magnates, corrupt sheriff, violence, innocence betrayed. Along the way, much information about Prohibition, mobster methods, local history, mores and even fashion/foods/music/medicine of the time rounds out the story quite nicely. Just attended the author‘s enthralling talk where he said he wrote in the style of L.A. Confidential and referenced The Maltese Falcon and Black Dahlia. He stated of his book “It’s not high literature—it’s unabashed crime fiction.” True.
He also said the book was 2 parts research & one part fiction; this becomes obvious as it's written with such incredible detail about the time and place that I could see every scene. Husband read this too, & we both agreed it felt like a movie (found out in authors’ talk that he’s written several screenplays. Including—now here’s a sideline but incredible story—seeing his “shopped around a lot by his agent” script being rejected everywhere, yet later seeing his stolen story on the big screen as Fool’s Gold. Imagine!!).
Anyway, I digress. There are so many great instances of the writing, where the details are indeed detailed, yet somehow never seem overdone; instead, they just put you right into the scene:
Black and white linoleum was laid out in a checkerboard pattern and eggshell cabinets hung on mint green walls. A creamy enamel gas stove and modern electric refrigerator were hooked up and ready for use. A white porcelain sink was set in a soft yellow tile countertop with black tile edging below a cottage window…
Can’t you just see the 1930’s typical décor!?
As the ship is outfitted for being the arcade amusement center:
Mutoscopes with hand-cranked card reels that gave an impression of moving pictures of Babe Ruth, Nancy Drew, and Roosevelt’s Rough Riders were organized in one corner, and a velvet-curtained photobooth featuring a backdrop of the Palo Alto occupied another.
Many architectural descriptions done well:
Arched windows and doors punctuated white stucco walls, and concrete balusters lined the top of a loggia. Untended formal gardens had crept beyond their beds and were turning brown.
A scene during a storm on a ship:
He steadied himself against whipping wind and driving rain as he slunk over, around, and between gun mounts, access hatches, mooring cleats, storage chests, platforms, winches, capstans, and mooring lines…
Vocabulary and items I never knew of; the author has done his work in so many areas besides the examples here of boats, games, buildings.
And not just practical details, but clever emotional arcs (Charlie’s rationalization of ):
Charlie rationalized that his liaison…was for Lily’s benefit as well, protecting her from protentional dangers down the road. She’d never find out about an inconsequential handful of hours…”That’s just how these things work,” Charlie thought. He commended himself for his deft stewardship of his youthful desires’ waning echoes.
(These next two paragraphs have spoiler aspects; I didn't hide as a spoiler because interweaving parts are and aren't, and hard to separate out, so just fyi):
I really enjoyed all of this, being able to really feel and picture the scenes, the local history, the plot and characters (nothing too deep, more action, but good enough—what it set out to be). However at around ¾ through, things just kept getting worse and worse. Good guys as well as bad guys being killed one after another, storms getting fiercer, things violently falling apart here and there, the one black character not faring well at all (though I did appreciate inclusion of showing the racism). By the last 1/8 of the book, it felt to me like an adolescent shoot ‘em up “let’s see how crazy violent we can make this” and I was so disappointed. I had been ready to give this a solid 4 stars for a good work within its genre (I rate not against high literature, but by how a book holds up in its genre), but this soured me so that it went down to 3 stars for me. I rounded up to support the author and for a good effort.
Would I recommend it? I think so, especially for locals. But in general, yes if you like noir and can handle the death and mayhem before an abrupt short “happy ending.” HOWEVER, my opinion might be the exception. My husband read the book and liked the ending better than the earlier parts!! So, go for it if you’re intrigued. 'Twas a super-fast easy read, in spite of the 461 pages, if you're inclined.
I will end with more photos of “our “ship. There are some interesting ones from the local museum, including the dining area during the heyday, President Biden with Governor Newsom surveying more recent destruction (when the damaged pier had to be removed…no more walking out to the boat 😢), and historical ones. Similar huge storms damaged the ship in the years of this novel. Then a pretty memory to end with!
I live a 5-minute walk from one of the few concrete ships built in WW2 for U.S troops when steel was hard to get. This one, not able to be used before the war ended, wound up attached to a pier here until a few years back (when storms, destroying that pier, were so bad that we joined 1000+ other neighbors in watching President’s Biden motorcade come to see the destruction!). This recently published historical novel is woven around the fascinating history of this ship: the S.S. Palo Alto. So of course I had to read it. Expectations shouldn’t be too high when local interest is the leading pull, but this surprised me with how good I found it (at least the first ¾—read on to understand what I liked and did not).
First, one of my many photos of the ship in the “before” times when we could still walk the pier near it.
The story is of a very wealthy Reno businessman/banker who purchases the decommissioned ship in 1929. His intention is to build upon it a concession arcade, ballroom, restaurant, and indoor pool as a tourist attraction. He has it towed from its San Francisco area resting place to the nascent budding resort beach town he loves: Aptos in Santa Cruz county, California, in a section known as Seacliff (where I live 😌). The bones of this are historical: the ship was such a place from 1930-32. In the novel, the new son-in-law, not nearly ambitious enough in the (distasteful) banker’s opinion, is put in charge of this business, to lure him away from his beloved but low paying teaching profession and toward “getting successful.” Son-in-law Charlie steps up to the plate, but interweaving storylines let us know that two rival mobsters (the Los Angeles & Chicago big guys) are battling things out, with the ship being eyed (unbeknownst to Charlie) as a place to have not just gambling but to serve the illegal Prohibition liquor these mobsters import from Canada. The novel has all the elements of noir fiction, along with interesting historical details: femme fatal, mob bosses, evil magnates, corrupt sheriff, violence, innocence betrayed. Along the way, much information about Prohibition, mobster methods, local history, mores and even fashion/foods/music/medicine of the time rounds out the story quite nicely. Just attended the author‘s enthralling talk where he said he wrote in the style of L.A. Confidential and referenced The Maltese Falcon and Black Dahlia. He stated of his book “It’s not high literature—it’s unabashed crime fiction.” True.
He also said the book was 2 parts research & one part fiction; this becomes obvious as it's written with such incredible detail about the time and place that I could see every scene. Husband read this too, & we both agreed it felt like a movie (found out in authors’ talk that he’s written several screenplays. Including—now here’s a sideline but incredible story—seeing his “shopped around a lot by his agent” script being rejected everywhere, yet later seeing his stolen story on the big screen as Fool’s Gold. Imagine!!).
Anyway, I digress. There are so many great instances of the writing, where the details are indeed detailed, yet somehow never seem overdone; instead, they just put you right into the scene:
Black and white linoleum was laid out in a checkerboard pattern and eggshell cabinets hung on mint green walls. A creamy enamel gas stove and modern electric refrigerator were hooked up and ready for use. A white porcelain sink was set in a soft yellow tile countertop with black tile edging below a cottage window…
Can’t you just see the 1930’s typical décor!?
As the ship is outfitted for being the arcade amusement center:
Mutoscopes with hand-cranked card reels that gave an impression of moving pictures of Babe Ruth, Nancy Drew, and Roosevelt’s Rough Riders were organized in one corner, and a velvet-curtained photobooth featuring a backdrop of the Palo Alto occupied another.
Many architectural descriptions done well:
Arched windows and doors punctuated white stucco walls, and concrete balusters lined the top of a loggia. Untended formal gardens had crept beyond their beds and were turning brown.
A scene during a storm on a ship:
He steadied himself against whipping wind and driving rain as he slunk over, around, and between gun mounts, access hatches, mooring cleats, storage chests, platforms, winches, capstans, and mooring lines…
Vocabulary and items I never knew of; the author has done his work in so many areas besides the examples here of boats, games, buildings.
And not just practical details, but clever emotional arcs (Charlie’s rationalization of ):
Charlie rationalized that his liaison…was for Lily’s benefit as well, protecting her from protentional dangers down the road. She’d never find out about an inconsequential handful of hours…”That’s just how these things work,” Charlie thought. He commended himself for his deft stewardship of his youthful desires’ waning echoes.
(These next two paragraphs have spoiler aspects; I didn't hide as a spoiler because interweaving parts are and aren't, and hard to separate out, so just fyi):
I really enjoyed all of this, being able to really feel and picture the scenes, the local history, the plot and characters (nothing too deep, more action, but good enough—what it set out to be). However at around ¾ through, things just kept getting worse and worse. Good guys as well as bad guys being killed one after another, storms getting fiercer, things violently falling apart here and there, the one black character not faring well at all (though I did appreciate inclusion of showing the racism). By the last 1/8 of the book, it felt to me like an adolescent shoot ‘em up “let’s see how crazy violent we can make this” and I was so disappointed. I had been ready to give this a solid 4 stars for a good work within its genre (I rate not against high literature, but by how a book holds up in its genre), but this soured me so that it went down to 3 stars for me. I rounded up to support the author and for a good effort.
Would I recommend it? I think so, especially for locals. But in general, yes if you like noir and can handle the death and mayhem before an abrupt short “happy ending.” HOWEVER, my opinion might be the exception. My husband read the book and liked the ending better than the earlier parts!! So, go for it if you’re intrigued. 'Twas a super-fast easy read, in spite of the 461 pages, if you're inclined.
I will end with more photos of “our “ship. There are some interesting ones from the local museum, including the dining area during the heyday, President Biden with Governor Newsom surveying more recent destruction (when the damaged pier had to be removed…no more walking out to the boat 😢), and historical ones. Similar huge storms damaged the ship in the years of this novel. Then a pretty memory to end with!
February 15, 2026
This engaging novel reads like a 1930s-40s noir film. Every scene is photogenic, and the reader easily imagines the movie it could be. I'm always struck by that era of film making, in that a lot of stuff happens in those films. Not only is there a lot of action, but there's also a lot of plot. This book is similar in plotting to those films, in a good way.
The story takes us from the beginnings of a courtship and marriage to conflicts and problems the young couple faces in their early life together. One of these problems is the bride's father, a slightly stereotypical tycoon-type, gruff and highly suspicious of his future son-in-law's abilities to keep his daughter happy in the lifestyle she's grown up amid. Charlie and Lily embark on the adventure of marriage, but also entrepreneurship, a new home, and new friends (and enemies who provide plenty of conflict). The pacing is cinematic, with a subplot around Chicago mobsters who make trouble for our hero and heroine. Altogether a good read.
The story takes us from the beginnings of a courtship and marriage to conflicts and problems the young couple faces in their early life together. One of these problems is the bride's father, a slightly stereotypical tycoon-type, gruff and highly suspicious of his future son-in-law's abilities to keep his daughter happy in the lifestyle she's grown up amid. Charlie and Lily embark on the adventure of marriage, but also entrepreneurship, a new home, and new friends (and enemies who provide plenty of conflict). The pacing is cinematic, with a subplot around Chicago mobsters who make trouble for our hero and heroine. Altogether a good read.
June 7, 2026
I came across this book and had to read it. Growing up in the 70's, my family camped a lot at the Sea Cliff State Park, which is where the SS Palo Alto is. I remember very fondly fishing off the boat and pier with my uncle. In the early 2000's, my husband and I owned a store in Aptos Village. So I know a lot about the history of this area. I have watched the SS Palo Alto be reclaimed by the sea and have many photos of it over the years. So I wanted to see how this novel painted its life.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, if you have any attachment to the area. Maybe not if you are looking for a wonderful mystery story. I found the characters to be lacking. I never really connected with any of them. I didn't enjoy the backstory on the gangsters, but I understand why it was needed. The last 1/4 of the book picks up the pace and is better. I was happy to see a nice ending.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, if you have any attachment to the area. Maybe not if you are looking for a wonderful mystery story. I found the characters to be lacking. I never really connected with any of them. I didn't enjoy the backstory on the gangsters, but I understand why it was needed. The last 1/4 of the book picks up the pace and is better. I was happy to see a nice ending.
Did Not Finish
November 27, 2025DNF. The premise and story were interesting enough the the writing felt so shallow and the characters did not feel real or relatable.
April 9, 2026
This was a thoroughly enjoyable read. Happy and excited every time I picked it up. Great character development. Very visual storytelling. Loved It!
July 16, 2026
Fantastic entertaining story! Interesting and surprising plot well developed characters the audience will root for!
The book takes you back in time! A refreshing and nostalgic read!
The book takes you back in time! A refreshing and nostalgic read!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews