INNER PASSAGES
BY CARL BROOKINS
Trade Paperback, ISBN 1-929976-01-1
INNER PASSAGES is about love, loss, murder and redemption, set against the mountains of
British Columbia on the waters of the Inside Passage, between Vancouver Island and the
mainland.
When Seattle executive Michael Tanner makes a recreational sail into Desolation Sound,
he encounters a tragedy that ends with the murder of his wife and her friend, and loss of
the sailboat.
Tanner’s efforts to resurrect his life and discover those responsible
lead him on an odyssey of exciting discovery. In a final violent confrontation with the
murderers of his wife, he is challenged to achieve the justice he seeks.
Praise for Inner Passages
Brookins has found the range...a tight story and a wonderful sense of place. Batten
down for a force eight chase rife with northwest cedar air, cold salt spray, and the
chilling rumble of diesels through the fog. You’ll feel this one.
--Richard Barre, author of Blackheart Highway
Tanner is an attractive protagonist with a lot of promise. We don’t see too many
men in our mysteries who are his age and successfully re-learning how to live. A wonderful
job of recreating the atmosphere, the feel of being in and on the water.
--Dianne Day, author of the Fremont Jones series
From the shattered stillness of its opening pages to its breathless climax, this story
moves at full sail. I felt the wet kiss of fog on my face and the taste of saltwater on my
tongue. Brookins is a writer who knows the sea and knows how to set a wonderful tale upon
it.
--William Kent Krueger, author of Boundary Waters
The setting of this book keeps lapping at my memory, gentle and relentless, green as
the sea.
--Monica Ferris, author of Framed in Lace, the Betsy Devonshire mystery series
REVIEWS
TITLE: Inner Passages
AUTHOR: Carl Brookins PUBLISHER: Top Publications
COST: $14.95
By--Estelle Oppers (aka Karen Dyer)
Although not new, Carl Brookins' INNER PASSES was new to me. The story of
a man who suffers the loss of his wife, their friend and his boat from a deliberate attack
at sea, leads to a suspenseful, event-filled nautical tale. Michael Tanner, who goes
down the tubes after this incident and then picks himself up, brushes himself off and
proceeds to find out what really happened and why, is a believable, well-developed
character. Carl Brookins' love of sailing and his love of language combine in a very
descriptive story. I knew nothing about sailing and yet I could follow the what was
happening. I learned a lot from Carl Brookins' perfect level of description about
the seas, inlets, ships, boats, and setting. Speaking of the setting, I felt I was
there and can still feel the experience in my memory. Although I am unsure how I feel
about the ending, perhaps it is the most realistic one possible. Thanks to Carl
Brookins' for increasing my awareness and knowledge about sailing and for a very
entertaining read.
After reading everybody else's whodunits, former Metro State teacher
writes his own mystery
TITLE: Inner Passages
AUTHOR: Carl Brookins PUBLISHER: Top Publications
COST: $14.95
MARY ANN GROSSMANN BOOK CRITIC
Carl Brookins is going to be talking to himself at Barnes & Noble in
Har-Mar Mall. As facilitator of the store's mystery-book club, Brookins usually
interviews authors. But at Tuesday's meeting, his own book is up for
discussion. "I guess I'll wear my facilitator's hat for the first 15
minutes, then turn around and put on my author's hat,'' he says with a
grin. Brookins, who retired two years ago from Metropolitan State University,
will talk about his debut mystery, Inner Passages. The book is set mostly on
the ``spectacular waterway'' between Puget Sound and the northern end of Vancouver
Island along the western coast of British Columbia. A fast-paced boating
thriller, it features successful Seattle public-relations executive and sailor
Michael Tanner, who finds himself pitted against a yacht that wants to kill
him. "I put in this book my sense of what an exciting thing it is to go
sailing,'' says Brookins, who has sailed all over the world with his wife,
Jean. Aboard rented 26-to-40-foot boats, the Roseville couple has sailed Lake
Superior and the coasts of Australia and the Adriatic. A native of St.
Paul's St. Anthony Park, Brookins is the grandson of Jesses Ames, longtime president
of River Falls (Wis.) Normal School (which became River Falls State University). His
father, Wallace William Brookins, was an agronomist who was instrumental in getting
Minnesota farmers to plant flax as a cash crop. After graduating from Murray
High School in 1950, Brookins spent two years in the Navy and then enrolled at the
University of Minnesota. Refusing to waste time on classes he thought were
pointless, he created his own interdepartmental degree program.
"I've always been attracted to new enterprises,'' he says. After serving
as producer/director at public-television station KTCA (Channel 2) in St. Paul,
Brookins took the same position at Michigan State University. Then he and Jean, with
daughters Shannon and Elissa, moved to Fargo, N.D., where Brookins worked at a new
educational television station. In 1970, he returned to the Twin Cities to
work for a company that electronically distributed videotapes and films to
schools. That company folded just about the time Brookins became intrigued by plans
for a new school in St. Paul where nontraditional students could do exactly what he
did at the university -- plan their own curriculums. "I
started work at Metro State in 1974, thinking it would be a short contract. I stayed
24 years,'' he says of the school where he taught photography and helped students
with educational planning. Some time in the late '80s, Brookins began to talk
to his wife about writing a book. Jean, a former associate director of publications and
research at the Minnesota Historical Society, suggested he take a class at the
Loft. Happily, his teacher was memoirist and mystery novelist Mary Logue,
who encouraged him to write. "I'm a voracious reader, and I've
always read mystery fiction, so it was logical to try writing it,'' he says. Among
his childhood favorites were Nero Wolfe, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Later,
he discovered Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler and pulp magazines devoted to
crime. "I write fiction because I can have characters say what I think
about things without backing it up with research or facts,'' he says. "Fiction
writers can have an impact on society." He points to one of his favorite
authors, John D. MacDonald, whose Travis McGee novels exposed the environmental
degradation of Florida's coastline by developers. MacDonald's influence was so
strong, Brookins says, there is now a body of "MacDonald laws'' on the books in
Florida. He also believes that mystery/crime fiction must be well-written, and
it must be as accurate as possible. Even though 15 agents turned down his
manuscript, Brookins kept revising it. He finally sold the book after sending it to
independent publishers listed in a catalog he picked up last year at the Bouchercon
mystery convention in Milwaukee. He was happy to go with a small press because
he's not driven by any personal profit motive. "I don't want to make
a fortune from my books. I'm out to have a good time,'' he says. "If it
makes money for the publisher, and people like it, that's all I
care about.'' To boost sales, he's going on the road to bookstores
outside the Twin Cities with a member of his writers group, St. Paul author Kent
Krueger (Boundary Waters). Brookins plans a series of Michael Tanner mysteries
and has already written several books in a second series that stars a midlevel
executive at a small Minneapolis college without a campus. Ummmm. That
sounds a lot like murder at Metro State.
Wed, 26 Jul 2000 16:23:25 -0500 From: Maddy Van
Being a partner in a successful public relations firm means that Michael Tanner
doesn't have much time for himself. Therefore, the 2-week vacation that he's planned
with his wife and soulmate, Beth, and her old college friend, Alice, is a respite that
he's been looking forward to, especially since they have decided to sail the Inside
Passage between Vancouver and Washington state and determine if they want to invest in a
boat of their own. It's been an enjoyable journey as they traverse along the shore
in the "Queen Anne", dropping into the various inlets and bays. Michael
really wants to sail in "big water", so they steer their course for
Lesqueti. As they do so, a thick fog rolls in, thick as the proverbial pea soup, and
the trio is navigating blindly. Then a strange thing happens. There's a small break
in the fog, and they see a 90-foot yacht within 50 yards of their much smaller vessel.
Suddenly, the yacht comes through the fog and nearly rams the Queen Anne. Shaken, Michael,
Beth and Alice attribute the near miss to an unfortunate error. However, when the yacht
returns again and fires a shot, they know they are in danger. Finally, it returns
for a third time and smashes into the Queen Anne. Michael falls into
unconsciousness; when he revives he is being rescued by the Coast Guard. Beth and
Alice are never seen again. There's no clear-cut evidence that supports Michael's story of
what happened, and he becomes obsessed with trying to find the strange yacht and bring the
murderers to justice. He falls into the pits of depression, abusing alcohol and
neglecting his professional duties. Fortunately, his partners at the agency are supportive
of him and ask him to take some time to heal and track down the elusive yacht.
Michael goes to Mexico where he slowly recovers. He then takes a seasonal job
working at a marina, feeling that this may be a place where he might see the yacht.
Indeed, he does begin to heal, even to the point of beginning a new relationship, but his
quest is not an easy one or one that is quickly resolved. This is Brookins' first book,
and he does an excellent job in several areas. He has a deft hand with dialogue, and there
are no false notes in terms of the plot. although some of the suspenseful elements were
laid on a bit thick. The book could have benefited from some tighter editing-there
were lots of missing quotation marks that made it difficult to read conversations.
In addition, there were several places where the transitioning between the narrative
events was weak which made for some confusion as points of view shifted without warning.
What is exceptional is his depiction of the unique setting, and he describes adventure on
the high seas along with the best of them. Much of the action takes place on the
waters of the Inside Passage, and Brookins describes the rigors of sailing exceedingly
well without getting overly technical. There are some beautiful descriptive
passages. The book comes to a satisfyingly realistic conclusion. A fine first
effort which I recommend. Maddy Van Hertbruggen Crime Fiction Reviewer for: About - The
Human Internet:
(Top Publications, trade paperback, ISBN 1-929976-01-1, 2000)
Clara Gamadge -- aka Sally Fellows sfellows@novia.net
Public relations firm owner Michael Tanner was sailing the Inside Passage with his wife
and a friend of theirs. He and Beth were trying to decide if they wanted to buy a
boat of some kind. Although the day started out sunny and nice, all too soon the fog
rolled in and they became disoriented. They didn’t know whether to turn back or
try to reach a mooring ahead of them. When a much larger yacht loomed up out of the fog,
they didn’t know what to do. When it tried to ram them and succeeded on the second
attempt, however, Michael was lucky to escape with his life and his wife and friend simply
vanished. When he recovered, he was determined to find out what yacht this was and why
they rammed his sloop. Brookins creates an atmosphere of fear and terror and apprehension.
The scenes in the fog, sounds coming from nowhere and everywhere, whispers becoming
shouts, all of this is very realistic and believable. He uses the weather, the water, the
surrounding countryside to very good advantage. When he is writing about sailing and boats
and water, he is at his best. He puts the reader onto the boat in the teeth of the storm,
tied up snugly alongside a mooring, or gently rocking in a calm. You feel the spray
hitting your face and the fog curling around your body. Indirectly I learned a great deal
about boats as well, although I can state categorically that I have no intention of ever
sailing a sloop in the fog on the Inside Passage. He also does an excellent job of
heightening suspense step by inexorable step. I found myself reading faster and faster so
that I could find out how all this was going to turn out. And I found myself, every once
in awhile, actually holding my breath. He uses his knowledge of boats and sailing to put
the reader in jeopardy along with his protagonist. The last part of the book was truly
white-knuckle time for me and I was impressed with how the author found a solution for the
peril. It is always upsetting if a deus ex machina or another human comes to rescue them,
and I liked the way they found their solution in their environment and saved themselves.
The story was lively and, for the most part, well told. It suffered from some of the minor
faults that first novels often have, an occasional reliance on telling instead of showing,
for example, and several misplaced modifiers. And the two main characters are fairly well
developed, but still two-dimensional. These are growing pains. I would certainly buy and
read another novel by Mr. Brookins, especially if he guaranteed that it also took place
mostly on water. Wonderful as this experience was, however, it is the kind I want to
experience vicariously, not directly. And reading this novel gave me the opportunity to do
just that.
Reviewed by Nancy Mehl
ŠThe Charlotte Austin Review Ltd.
Seattle executive Michael Tanner, his wife Beth and
her friend Alice, decide to take a leisurely sailing trip through the Inside Passage, a
waterway along the western coast of British Columbia. Not long into their journey, they
are surrounded by a thick and menacing fog. As Michael tries to steer their boat called
the Queen Anne out of the fog and back to safety, a large white yacht mercilessly runs
them down. Michael wakes up to find Alice’s lifeless body - and his beloved Beth
gone. Michael's life without Beth and his grief lead to excessive drinking; his career
seems destined to die along with the love of his life. No one seems to believe the story
of the killer yacht. Although many blame Michael for the accident, his business partners
encourage him to search for the men who rammed the Queen Anne. Only one clue to the
boat’s identity may help: the first three letters of the yacht's name – GOL.
Helped by a woman he first suspects of being involved with the owners of the boat,
Michael's search leads him to marinas, harbors and seedy sea-side bars, looking for clues
leading to his wife’s murderers and to a way back to his own life. The title of this
novel not only refers to a body of water, but also to the personal journey Michael Tanner
must make as he looks for a way out of the storm surrounding his interrupted life. Carl
Brookins shows his well versed knowledge of sailing, while the plot and characterizations
stay strong and inviting. Inner Passages delivers a well written, satisfying story with unrelenting
tension.
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