Opening paragraphs............

     The cold Alaskan water pulled at the fishing boats that
lined the dock, the boats straining against their moorings to
run free with the tide,  The water here in the small harbor at
Angoon, a fishing village on the western shore of Admiralty
Island off southeast Alaska, was steel-black beneath the
clouds and dimpled by the rain, but was clear even with that,
a window beneath the weathered pilings to a world of sun-
burst starfish as wide as garbage cans jellyfish the size of
basketballs, and barnacles as heavy as a longshoreman's
fist.  Alaska was like that, so vigorous with life that it could
fill a man and lift him and maybe even bring him back from
the dead."

Robert Crais, The Last Detective