If you have ever been whitewater rafting or canoeing you will really identify with this book. If not the high intensity thrill ride describe in the book may make you think twice about taking a ride down the river. The author cleverly using the thrilling trips down a wild river as the backdrop for a murder mystery. This is the first book I've read by Ronald Berger, but will search out additional ones. I thank NetGalley for this digital ARC .

I’m the first person reviewing this, I even had to create a listing for it on GR. Good deed for the day done. Now on to the review. I’ve never been to upstate New York nor have I ever been whitewater rafting. One day the former might change, but the latter is certain to remain the same, especially after reading this book. I don’t really get high adrenaline activities in general, life seems scary enough as is, so tumbling down unruly waterways in unsteady crafts seems wildly unenjoyable. And in this book, it’s actually also deadly. Two dead guides in less than a week. A record. So much so that an investigation is warranted and the mind behind it belongs to a local professor/former rafting guide, now specializing in criminology. So he goes and investigates, putting himself in considerable danger and many water adventures are had. I mean, it’s a proper thriller, it has an antagonist obsessed with the past and desperate to put things the way they were and, of course, will never be again, fighting the modernization and subsequent pillaging of the area by the powers that be. There is detective work, official and unofficial, and plenty of action. The author’s knowledge of both upstate NY (through living there) and whitewater rafting (through being a guide in the past) has served him well with this (looks like a retirement) project. The writing’s completely decent for a debut, the book is lean and fast paced. Very much a manly sort of adventure, barely any female characters, a lot of testosterone all around. Not offputtingly so and the female characters are perfectly well rendered when they show up for brief appearances, but overall a total…well, whatever the literary equivalent of a sausage fest is. But fact is this is way above and beyond the sort of crap BooksGoSocial usually serves up, a professional job through and though from cover on out and it doesn’t overstay its welcome either. I learned entirely too much about rafting, which has done nothing to change my mind about it, but it was an education all the same. Reasonably entertaining quick read. Especially for fans of wild waters and manly thrillers. Thanks Netgalley.