Salvage

July 4, 2016
Canadian journalist Maher’s second novel (after Deadline) begins with an adventure in the Atlantic, off the coast of Nova Scotia, when Philip Scarnum, seafarer and boat restorer, spots an abandoned lobster boat, the Kelly Lynn. Scarnum risks life and limb to haul the boat back to shore as night falls. Exhausted by his labors, he falls asleep, dreaming of the big money he is sure to get as a salvage fee. Re-examining his salvage later, he discovers that the deck is covered in blood, and he finds some problematic packages of white powder—cocaine. When the Mounties turn up with the news that the body of the last man to take the Kelly Lynn out to sea has just washed up on a nearby beach, Scarnum is plunged into a deadly game of survival. He has to think fast and stay tough as he staves off the Mounties, who are all too willing to send him to jail, and do his best to avoid a gang of machine gun–toting drug lords—all the while trying to keep the pregnant girlfriend of the murdered man out of harm’s way. Maher vividly captures the East Coast, not only the wind and the tangy scent of the sea but the accents and talk of the people in Scarnum’s world—as rough and salty as the waters they sail. Stronger character development, especially for the female characters, might have helped balance this testosterone-fuelled tale, but readers looking for action will find plenty of it. Agent: Chris Bucci, McDermid Agency (Canada).

June 15, 2016
A Nova Scotia waterman risks his life to salvage an abandoned vessel, then finds that no good deed goes unpunished.Phillip Scarnum ekes out a marginal living delivering other people's boats. In the middle of taking the schooner Cerberus to its owner, Halifax dentist Dr. Greely, he comes on the Kelly Lynn, a lobster boat stuck on a reef off Cape Sambro. Though it's blowing a gale and he's alone aboard the Cerberus, he succeeds in extricating the Kelly Lynn from the Sambro Ridge and tows her into the Chester boatyard his old friend Charlie Isenor owns, then buys and drinks a quart of Crown Royal in what turn out to be his last quiet hours. The lobster boat's owner, it turns out, is Bobby Falkenham, the high-rolling businessman whose acquisitions include Scarnum's ex-lover Karen. And although he's willing to pay top dollar as a salvage fee, and pay it fast, the deal founders when the body of fisherman James Zinck washes ashore, shot in the back. Jimmy had taken the Kelly Lynn out on her last voyage; he'd specifically asked Doug Amos, his usual fishing partner, to stay behind; and there's every indication that he'd been using the boat to run drugs. Although the local Mounties arrest Scarnum for cocaine possession and murder, he faces even bigger problems: the appearance of Jimmy's wife, Angela Rodenhiser, who isn't sure whether the baby she's carrying is Jimmy's, Falkenham's, or Scarnum's, and a pair of Mexican enforcers convinced that Scarnum's salvage operation included the cocaine the Kelly Lynn was carrying and determined to get back it from him one way or another. Maher (Deadline, 2013) keeps the pot boiling by forgoing character development, moral complexity, and plot twists in order to churn out one fast-paced action scene after another. It's all one-dimensional but highly effective if you're in the mood.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2016
Readers of this fine novel will spot the template right off. An ordinary man, no better than he has to be, encounters some bad people and ends up fighting for his life. Phillip Scarnum, sailing along Nova Scotia's Cape Sambro, comes across a derelict lobster boat. The author treats us to a magnificent set piece as he describes Scarnum's battle against icy wind and water to bring the boat in andmaybecollect a salvage fee. But after Scarnum discovers who owns the boat and what it's really been used for, a lot of mean-eyed men with guns are after him. This is all woven into the fabric of life in the little North Atlantic village, and Maher details it generously in prose that is rich with regional idioms. The narrative eventually winds its way to a violent ending, but mood and setting are the real appeals here, though readers will be tantalized about the the identity of Scarnum. Who is he and where was he going when he found the boat? Sequels may answer those questions.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)