This ghostly tale of the sea follows a long tradition, and if it fails to reach the heights of a Joseph Conrad or a William Hope Hodgson, it's not for lack of knowledge or effort on the part of first-time novelist Patrick. Landlubbers will appreciate the lessons in seamanship and nautical terminology that the novel's 19-year-old heroine, Melanie Gierek, learns from the gentlemanly young captain of the Louisa Lee, a 19th-century schooner, as it leisurely cruises the Maine coast ("tiny explosions of phosphoresence in the water" are "bioluminescent dinoflagellates," he explains), but others may find the pace too slow, the action redundant. In addition, horror fans should beware that the author softens the eeriness with a confessional tone usually associated with romance fiction. Twenty years earlier, the captain and his mate built the vessel from recycled parts of sunken boats and named it for his beloved sister, Louisa, who committed suicide and whose ashes are buried in the Louisa Lee's ballast. Melanie's fellow passengers, an eccentrically dressed lot, share their stories, but these tend to be obvious and repetitive. In perhaps the novel's most striking moment, Melanie discovers that these people are all ghosts, each representing an aspect of the dead sister. There's a nice little story here; it's too bad the author didn't write it at a tauter novella length. (Sept.)
