THE GORGE

Whitewater rafting on the Hudson River Gorge in the Adirondacks turns deadly by design in this debut thriller.

Even though he has a “cushy teaching” position in Albany, criminology professor Richard Carlyle still works for a company that offers rafting trips on the Hudson River each spring. As a rookie a decade ago, he led some of the excursions. The raft operation’s boss, Ryan Marshall, asks Carlyle to judge if newbie Art Sanders qualifies to be a licensed boatman. By the end of the day, the question is moot: Sanders topples backward in the raft, cartwheels into the river, and ultimately drowns. An inspection of the raft shows the boat was sabotaged. Days later, another of Marshall’s rafters drowns when out of sight from the rest of the crew. Because of Carlyle’s experience rafting the gorge, his knowledge of the surrounding area, and his university career as a “hotshot criminologist,” he’s asked to lead the investigation into the deaths that are soon determined to be murders. He explains to his wife, Beth: “The university’s going to love the fact that one of their faculty is helping the cops chase down a killer.” Could the deaths be connected to a rival raft company or to the glamorous new ski resort that the governor wants built in the area? Or is there just “a madman on the loose”? Berger, a former licensed whitewater raft guide on the Hudson, offers keen accounts of mountain streams filling with snowmelt and the thrills and spills of rafting. The book is well paced and laced with whitewater lingo. It’s doubtful a travel writer could offer a more delicious description of this Hudson River area. But occasionally, a scene will cause readers to raise their eyebrows, as when Sanders rafts in strong water that is “working at the back of his thigh like a pit bull on a poodle.” And some things could be better defined: A reference to prying “the log into the Indian” doesn’t make it clear that the Indian is a river.

A bracing confluence of adventure, murder, and breathtaking scenery.