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The Inland Sea
Set in a sequestered part of Lake Champlain known as the Inland Sea, this book is about the people and families who have spent their lives there. Paul Brearley, part owner of Osprey Island, is a handsome, athletic, successful young minister with a beautiful wife and son. In 1990, he suddenly disappears, presumed drowned. Eighteen years later, in 2008, his body, shot dead, is found nearby propped up in a campground lean-to, as if resting from a long walk.
The detective in charge, Fred Davis, is 53, divorced, and just two years from retirement. He knows the lake as well as anyone and dives in to solving Paul's murder and disappearance. What was Paul doing for 18 years? Who shot him? As the investigation develops, Fred finds himself unraveling a web of small events that lead him back in time to a single moment, a boating accident in 1972. This is where our story begins.
The detective in charge, Fred Davis, is 53, divorced, and just two years from retirement. He knows the lake as well as anyone and dives in to solving Paul's murder and disappearance. What was Paul doing for 18 years? Who shot him? As the investigation develops, Fred finds himself unraveling a web of small events that lead him back in time to a single moment, a boating accident in 1972. This is where our story begins.
- GenresMystery
290 pages, Paperback
Published December 8, 2020
7 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 2, 2021
As a whole, this really wasn't my cup of tea. I'd call this a guy's book with all the emphasis on different kinds of boats and so forth. We did know the identity of the murderer fairly early on but I did like following the case of the murdered man with the "borrowed" identity. The book speculates on why he had disappeared for 18 years. Law enforcement in Vermont, Canada, and New York helped in the solution; I liked that the different agencies worked together. Writing was staccato, crisp and to the point.
Thanks to LibraryThing for sending me an ARC.
Thanks to LibraryThing for sending me an ARC.
July 30, 2021
In reality, this book deserves a 4.75⭐️
Unfortunately, that’s not an option. This mystery ranks amongst the top books I’ve read this year, and that’s a tall order.
It’s not a quick read, despite being only 250+ pages, the story is packed with an exorbitant amount of detail. The author does an amazing job of describing water. As silly as I may sound— if you’ve never been on a boat you will feel like you have been by the time you’re done with this book.
The story itself is unique.
First you get the lay-of-the-land. It’s a lot of information and I found myself flipping back and forth from the story to the map. You meet all of the characters, their background is laid out for you, and you start to understand who they are at a core level.
Then, all of the sudden you’re in the middle of a murder scene. It’s as though you’ve peaked inside the envelope during a game of Clue. Though you have the answer to the mystery the story still holds twits and turns.
Through and through, it ended up being a well written novel. I truly enjoyed it. It just took me a while to read. There were so many details, albeit necessary ones, it was a lot to absorb. I found myself taking breaks just to process what I had read.
One pet peeve I have with books are unfinished story lines. I can’t think of a single one in this book. It comes together very nicely and acknowledges every plot twist.
Great read, I highly recommend.
Unfortunately, that’s not an option. This mystery ranks amongst the top books I’ve read this year, and that’s a tall order.
It’s not a quick read, despite being only 250+ pages, the story is packed with an exorbitant amount of detail. The author does an amazing job of describing water. As silly as I may sound— if you’ve never been on a boat you will feel like you have been by the time you’re done with this book.
The story itself is unique.
First you get the lay-of-the-land. It’s a lot of information and I found myself flipping back and forth from the story to the map. You meet all of the characters, their background is laid out for you, and you start to understand who they are at a core level.
Then, all of the sudden you’re in the middle of a murder scene. It’s as though you’ve peaked inside the envelope during a game of Clue. Though you have the answer to the mystery the story still holds twits and turns.
Through and through, it ended up being a well written novel. I truly enjoyed it. It just took me a while to read. There were so many details, albeit necessary ones, it was a lot to absorb. I found myself taking breaks just to process what I had read.
One pet peeve I have with books are unfinished story lines. I can’t think of a single one in this book. It comes together very nicely and acknowledges every plot twist.
Great read, I highly recommend.
July 25, 2021
Really enjoyed reading this book. We have had a family camp in South Hero for many years. Fun to read a book set in a place you know and love! I thought the plot and characters were interesting. I would recommend this book.
July 25, 2021
Love a Champlain Islands Mystery!
July 15, 2021
I’m in it for all the Vermont references!
December 30, 2020
3.75 stars for me!
This book was a quick mystery written by a local author. My favorite part was reading a book set 10 miles from me (as the crow flies). I love how the author describes the area and makes you feel like you're in the boat with the characters.
Well done book!
This book was a quick mystery written by a local author. My favorite part was reading a book set 10 miles from me (as the crow flies). I love how the author describes the area and makes you feel like you're in the boat with the characters.
Well done book!
May 20, 2021
Sam Clark really brought the setting and characters into a wonderful story. I felt like I knew the characters and was really in the setting. Thank you, Sam!
October 24, 2021
Generally, a mystery novel is a whodunit: a victim is found; a clever detective investigates, and gradually, the evidence leads the detective to the murderer. In The Inland Sea, Sam Clark turns the whodunit plot on its head. The novel opens by describing the grudges that form the murder's 1972 backstory, moves forward 36 years to the murder; finally, it brings in the detective, Fred Davis, to solve a crime the reader has already seen being committed. It's a truly enterprising variation on the genre, and it should appeal to many mystery fans.
Primary among the reasons for its appeal is the personality of Vermont State Police Sergeant Fred Davis. At 53, he's a detective three years from retirement, a non-farming member of the Davis Family Farm on South Hero Island, a long-time lover and builder of wooden boats, and an aficionado of Lake Champlain, its islands and its inhabitants. His intelligence and his ability to delegate work equitably make him popular with his team, and his gregarious nature makes it easy for him to befriend both the lake's summer residents and its full-time denizens, thus collecting chance observations that gradually lead him to the murderer. One of the most puzzling things Davis discovers as he opens the case is that the victim, Paul Brearley, has been officially declared dead (presumed drowned) for eighteen years. The reader, as always in this book, has learned a fair amount about Brearley before Davis enters the scene. Brearley's family has long been one of four that co-own Osprey Island, a tiny island in the Inland Sea (the part of Lake Champlain that is east of North and South Hero islands and west of the Vermont shore). Well-off, athletic, and successful, Brearley unaccountably abandoned the ministry, his wife, and his son in 1990, and simply disappeared. His new life as Paul Baer, so different from his former one, fascinates Davis; and the apparent lack of motive for his disappearance, while it has little direct bearing on the case, is of deep interest to 81-year-old Pliny, one of Osprey Island's other co-owners and a retired minister with whom Brearley, in his "first" life, was close. The friendship that develops between Davis and Pliny subtly opens a window on the summer communities that developed around Lake Champlain in the three decades following World War II.
There's no star for 4.5, or I'd give it that.
A mystery that portrays both victim and killer before the plot gets well under way is unlikely to be a thriller, and—with the exception of an excellent fast-paced chase scene towards the end—The Inland Sea moves relatively slowly. More than compensating for this leisurely pace, however, is its intimate knowledge of Lake Champlain and its brief but detailed sketches of the varying cultures of the people who live around its shores. Clark clearly knows every bay and every tiny island that the lake affords. All the details that inform the mystery's setting—the time it takes to get from one place to another, the changes in the weather, the difficulties of navigating tricky spots, the policing of the Canadian-Vermont border, the life of South Hero farmers—ring absolutely true. Readers familiar with Lake Champlain will read The Inland Sea with delight, and those who have little knowledge of the lake may find themselves planning to visit it.
(read all my reviews of books by Vermont authors at 222.lauracstevenson.org)
Primary among the reasons for its appeal is the personality of Vermont State Police Sergeant Fred Davis. At 53, he's a detective three years from retirement, a non-farming member of the Davis Family Farm on South Hero Island, a long-time lover and builder of wooden boats, and an aficionado of Lake Champlain, its islands and its inhabitants. His intelligence and his ability to delegate work equitably make him popular with his team, and his gregarious nature makes it easy for him to befriend both the lake's summer residents and its full-time denizens, thus collecting chance observations that gradually lead him to the murderer. One of the most puzzling things Davis discovers as he opens the case is that the victim, Paul Brearley, has been officially declared dead (presumed drowned) for eighteen years. The reader, as always in this book, has learned a fair amount about Brearley before Davis enters the scene. Brearley's family has long been one of four that co-own Osprey Island, a tiny island in the Inland Sea (the part of Lake Champlain that is east of North and South Hero islands and west of the Vermont shore). Well-off, athletic, and successful, Brearley unaccountably abandoned the ministry, his wife, and his son in 1990, and simply disappeared. His new life as Paul Baer, so different from his former one, fascinates Davis; and the apparent lack of motive for his disappearance, while it has little direct bearing on the case, is of deep interest to 81-year-old Pliny, one of Osprey Island's other co-owners and a retired minister with whom Brearley, in his "first" life, was close. The friendship that develops between Davis and Pliny subtly opens a window on the summer communities that developed around Lake Champlain in the three decades following World War II.
There's no star for 4.5, or I'd give it that.
A mystery that portrays both victim and killer before the plot gets well under way is unlikely to be a thriller, and—with the exception of an excellent fast-paced chase scene towards the end—The Inland Sea moves relatively slowly. More than compensating for this leisurely pace, however, is its intimate knowledge of Lake Champlain and its brief but detailed sketches of the varying cultures of the people who live around its shores. Clark clearly knows every bay and every tiny island that the lake affords. All the details that inform the mystery's setting—the time it takes to get from one place to another, the changes in the weather, the difficulties of navigating tricky spots, the policing of the Canadian-Vermont border, the life of South Hero farmers—ring absolutely true. Readers familiar with Lake Champlain will read The Inland Sea with delight, and those who have little knowledge of the lake may find themselves planning to visit it.
(read all my reviews of books by Vermont authors at 222.lauracstevenson.org)
November 7, 2023
A read for my book club. I’d give it 2.5 stars. It’s decent.
One reviewer commented about too much about different types of boats. Well, I know nothing about boats — but I do know how it feels to write/think about something you know/care a lot about, so I did like the boat content just because it rang so true.
What I most appreciated was the accurate sense of place. Writers who don’t live in Vermont either portray it as excessively quaint … or make it way bigger than it actually is. (E.g. Burlington is huge, or there are airports in Brattleboro, Montpelier, etc.)
It’s an odd type of “mystery” because we know very early on who the killer is (and where and why). So it’s more about following along with the detective as he tries to piece together what happened.
One reviewer commented about too much about different types of boats. Well, I know nothing about boats — but I do know how it feels to write/think about something you know/care a lot about, so I did like the boat content just because it rang so true.
What I most appreciated was the accurate sense of place. Writers who don’t live in Vermont either portray it as excessively quaint … or make it way bigger than it actually is. (E.g. Burlington is huge, or there are airports in Brattleboro, Montpelier, etc.)
It’s an odd type of “mystery” because we know very early on who the killer is (and where and why). So it’s more about following along with the detective as he tries to piece together what happened.
December 29, 2021
Although this book kept my interest, I would have enjoyed it much more if the writing had been a little more descriptive and if I understood more about boats or there had been less details about them. The story lacked drama, although the plot was interesting, so it could have easily gone from a 3 ⭐️ to a 4 ⭐️, or more, with those changes. Overall, I did like this book but won’t seek out this author in the future.
August 6, 2021
An intriguing and well paced read. You know the killer off the bat and get clues as to why. The ending is interesting because it does leave some very large strings dangling allowing the reader to draw a conclusion. I appreciated the economical, but still descriptive language Clark used. Good for fans of a cat and mouse type crime stories that are a quick read.
August 9, 2021
Sam Clark writes a great mystery with wonderful descriptions of the families and people of the Lake Champlain area. It’s great to read the beautiful descriptions about the lake and surrounding area. We know the “who done it” pretty early on, yet the story and mystery continues to evolve.
Thank you to Root Stock Publishing for an ARC of the book.
Thank you to Root Stock Publishing for an ARC of the book.
April 2, 2021
I did finish this but skimmed it to just get through.
November 17, 2022
3.5 stars! Fictional mystery discussing Lake Champlain!
January 1, 2024
Read it for a book club. Probably would not have picked the book on my own. I didn't dislike the book, but didn't find myself with the can't put it down, or just one more chapter feeling either.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews