Library Journal
A widow's walk atop a crumbling mansion where beautiful haunted women wait in vain for their men to return from the sea; a family's mysterious past, their fortunes gained and lost; and a journey back in time. All this (and more) describes debut author Clark's saga of the whales and the water. In 1850s Connecticut, young Mercy Rathbone and her Uncle Mordecai embark on a coastal journey. They uncover unimaginable family secrets: 100 years earlier, patriarch Moses Rathbone, a seafaring shipbuilder, was also a much married husband and fruitful father. He amassed a whaling empire that slowly eroded under curious circumstances. Mercy and Mordecai, the two remaining Rathbones, take on the complex task of finding pieces of the family's story and fitting them back together. Written with a deft hand, the novel returns to a time in American history when great communities of mariners understood the power of the sea and the creatures within. VERDICT At once sprawling, ambitious, and tightly woven, this gothic tale is shrouded in longing and loss, with hints of the supernatural woven throughout. Readers of epic family sagas will find it both compelling and captivating. [See Prepub Alert, 3/18/13.]—Susanne Wells, Indianapolis