The Inland Sea

Sam Clark, Rootstock Publishing, 290 pages. $16.95.

[H]e had taken to the water, to boats, fishing, and every other activity that can be done on a big lake.

Builder and cabinetmaker Sam Clark is based in Plainfield, but his intimate knowledge of northwestern Vermont — specifically its waters — prevails like a central character in The Inland Sea. Though Clark has penned several books on design, this is his first mystery novel.

Make that mysteries: Clark’s plot — and Detective Fred Davis’ conundrum — centers on a missing man who is presumed to have drowned 18 years earlier. That is, until he turns up freshly murdered on Lake Champlain’s Osprey Island. Why did Paul Brearley walk out on his wife and son, what was he doing for all those years, and why did he return to the family camp in the winter? Moreover, who killed him and why? (Oddly, Clark reveals much of this in early chapters, but a crew of Vermont detectives still has to figure it out.)

Like fellow Vermont author Archer Mayor, Clark dives deeply into his characters’ psyches and employs rich observations of place. The Inland Sea is a promising debut, and this reader hopes for a return of Det. Davis.

— P.P.