The
Bloody Black Flag: A Spider John Mystery. Steve Goble. Prometheus/ Seventh
Street Books. September 2017. 237 pp. ISBN #: 9781633883598.
What
child has read a book about pirates or seen pirate movies and imagined living
such an adventurous, constantly thrilling life.
Well, that hunger can be sated again with Steve Goble’s novel about
Spider John, a man who feels safer as a pirate at sea than a landlubber always
having to watch his back for fear of the hangman or jailkeeper because of past
deeds. The time is 1722 and the place is
the Colonial Coast of America. Spider
John and his good friend, Ezra, have escaped capture ashore and are now part of
the crew of the Plymouth Dream, with
a captain who would not think twice about killing any crew member if his rules
are broken.
Early
on, a young, bitter looking “bloke” keeps eying Ezra and it turns out he
believes Ezra is the descendant of witches and therefore to be burned at the
stake or hanged. This is an area of
Massachusetts still carrying shadows of the earlier “witches” frenzy that wound
up with rash charges made and confirmed, followed by death. Imagine Spider John’s devastation when Ezra
is found dead in his room.
Spider
John is determined to find the murderer, but in between his investigation steps
are battles to be fought against attackers of their ship. These are the swashbuckling battles that are
expected by the reader and do not fail to satisfy with their minute
descriptions of hand-to-hand combat as well as sword-fighting duels that are
life and death matters.
There
is no law on a pirate ship and Spider John has no intention of capturing Ezra’s
killer but instead will kill him. Surprises
aplenty will thrill the reader as this search continues! Nicely done and hopefully the first of many
more Spider John stories to follow!
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