Kirkus Reviews weighs in on The Silver Waves of Summer: 

In assembling a variety of literary tales, short mysteries, and crime noir, Olsen handpicked these stories not only for their often bestselling and award-winning authors, but also for their suspense quotient and deft ability to thrill in a few pages. The opener, “In the Bank,” from novelist Antoine Wilson, follows two greedy thieves with a boat who hatch a plan to disguise themselves as Coast Guard sailors to intercept a lucrative marijuana shipment from cartel smugglers. Things, of course, go horribly wrong, as is the case in other tales like Edgar Award winner Naomi Hirahara’s crisp, effective “Off the 405,” in which a multifamily day at a Southern California beach quickly devolves into high-speed chaos on a freeway, and the noir crime short “Summer of ’86” from writer Tod Goldberg. Goldberg’s story focuses on a recently released felon traveling to Monterey Bay to help a sibling make ends meet after her boyfriend mysteriously disappears. The East Coast finds private investigator and newspaper reporter Susan Jaffe in prime form as she unravels the coldblooded murder of an original member of a private nudist resort in Shamus Award–winning writer Charles Ardai’s charming and endlessly engrossing mystery “The Naked and the Dead.” The quirky cast of characters, Jaffe’s pluckiness, and the seamless narration create a winning tale that will have readers seeking Ardai’s longer mysteries. Novelist Rob Roberge’s atmospheric missing person story “The Five Thieves of Bombay Beach” is set near the dry, desolate, sulfur-stinking Salton Sea. The narrator searches the beach for his father, who vanished. Other tales vary in theme, from the eclectically imagined life of jazz great Miles Davis in the 1950s to a horror yarn about outlaw sisters who murder together. Though these works often share similar themes, the diversity of the narrative voices and the seasoned storytelling abilities of these talented authors create compelling tones that evoke the suspenseful, the downtrodden, and the murderously moody. The collection’s longest entry is Alex Webb Wilson’s novella Wasteland, which uses essential elements and family bonds to brilliantly conclude the anthology with raw, vividly realized emotions. Olsen has masterfully gathered an established crew of writers to maximum effect.

A potent assemblage of briskly paced tales that will satisfy mystery and crime noir fans.