DEAD RECKONING
by Laurie Lawlor
Most know him as Sir Francis Drake, learned no doubt from sanitized and less absorbing textbooks, but in the late 16th century, he was El Draque: The Dragon. In this historical adventure, Drake recruits his young cousin Emmet to be his servant on the upcoming voyage on the Pelican, about to be renamed the Golden Hind. Emmet soon realizes the expected trading voyage is really a pirate’s quest, and Drake is leading a government-sponsored pirate fleet on a three-year, 40,000-mile madman’s caper. Life on a ship is a whole new world to Emmet, and never would he have expected cruel initiations, shooting the Strait of Magellan, talk of monsters, giants and cannibals, executions of traitors and the loss of new friends. Soon, he is sick of it all: “Sick of the voyage, sick of what it is doing to us, sick of myself and what I am becoming.” Based as closely as possible on the sometimes-scant historical record, Lawlor’s work is full of adventure and lively detail; a solid afterword and author’s note continue the story. (Fiction. 10-14)