Matt Tomerlin

Katherine Lindsey is the young wife of a merchant captain sailing with him across the Atlantic to New England. Her husband is killed during a pirate attack and she is taken prisoner and held captive in the captain's cabin. To her surprise, Captain Griffith doesn't rape her. He has other plans: marrying her and retiring with her to a plantation in the Caribbean.

This could be the beginning of a romance novel or a swashbuckling adventure; instead, Tomerlin spins a violent and bloody tale about people fighting to survive and prosper in a harsh and greedy world. The story shifts points of view between Katherine, Griffith, Livingston (the psychotic quartermaster), and Nathan Lane, a young American who volunteered to become a pirate when his father's merchant ship was boarded. Katherine, who starts out as a woman of no particular quality or consequence, turns out to have a talent for survival and a toughness which rivals that of the men around her.

This is not a tale for the faint of heart. While I rarely thought the bloody action was gratuitious, there is a lot of it, and there are several ugly deaths. What I liked about the book was the quality of the characterizations and the sense that Tomerlin did his homework. This is the most realistic pirate novel I've ever read, even if Katherine's fortitude and luck edge into the extrordinary.

The other thing I like about this novel is that Katherine is not a particularly likeable person. She has our sympathy due to her circumstances, but she is not presented as being especially noble, compassionate, idealistic, tender, or any of the other classic heroine's traits. What she is is interesting, and by the end of the book I absolutely want to read the next volume in the series to find out what she's going to do next.… (plus d'informations)

Like others, I'd give this 3.5 stars if I could. It's a well-written pirate adventure, wtihout the romance of either the swashbuckler or the bodice-ripper genres -- and that's it's primary strength. It's a solid novel about the less-than-romantic life of pirates in the last years of the Golden Age, and about a young woman who both suffers and adapts to being kidnapped after her husband is murdered.

The story gets rough sometimes. These are violent, not-always-sane people, and there is a lot of violence. Such scenes are not really to my taste, but they seemed like a realistic depiction of the real lives of pirates.… (plus d'informations)

If you like fictional novels about Pirates and their lives on the high seas, but aren’t looking for a romance, I can recommend The Devil’s Fire: A Pirate Adventure Novel, by Matt Tomerlin, the first book in his Devil Fires Trilogy:

Tomerlin takes readers into the raw and gritty world of piracy, and one woman’s struggle after she and her ship captain husband are kidnapped after their merchant ship is overtaken by a treacherous band of pirates whose brutality and violence are not for those who are easily unnerved by violence. The protagonist, Katherine, is forced to reluctantly accept that she is included in the “treasure” plundered from her husband’s ship, and through her experiences as a captive, she is transformed into a hardened woman obsessed with revenge, who reaches the brink of her humanity. It’s a gripping story narrated from multiple characters’ perspectives, and these characters are richly developed and deeply flawed. There are no admirable heroes to be found, none who will rescue and save Katherine. She must unflinchingly stand on her own if she is to have any hope of outmaneuvering those who have taken her freedom.… (plus d'informations)