THE BUCCANEERS
by Iain Lawrence
From glimpses of Captain Kidd’s glittering hoard to an all-too-close encounter with a crew of cockroach-carpeted corpses, young John Spencer’s new adventures, in the wake of The Wreckers (1998) and The Smugglers (1999), bring him to the edge of death and glory once again. What could have been an ordinary trading voyage to the West Indies becomes anything but, after John’s Dragon rescues a wonderfully able but enigmatic sailor named Horn from a decrepit lifeboat in mid-ocean. Is Horn a Jonah, as the Dragon’s one-eyed gunner claims, or a good-luck charm? Even after repeated bouts with wild storms, tropical diseases, sharks big enough to shatter small boats, and a well-armed pirate ship with a mad, brilliant, horribly disfigured captain, the question remains moot, as Horn’s seamanship pulls the Dragon out of hot water more than once. In the end, the Dragon does, by the skin of its teeth, arrive safely back to England—but readers have very likely not seen the last of Mr. Spencer. Heavily scented with blood, gunpowder, and bracing sea air, this nautical episode makes riveting reading. (Fiction. 12-15)