Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)There are just too many things wrong with this novel for it to get any positive recommendation. The dialogue is wooden, sometimes laughable. Coincidences and cliches abound in amateurish fashion. Spelling, grammar and syntax cry out for a competent editor.
Characterizations are stiff, one dimensional, nonsensical. Among the Confederate pirates, for example, is a French Canadian who calls people, "Mon ami," and even says "Sacre bleu." Why he is there makes no sense at all. He seems to have walked in out of a Bullwinkle cartoon.
But worst of all is the shallow understanding of history, of fact, of reality. Granted, a fiction writer can take certain liberties with raw history, but the author of this novel goes off the edge. These errors go from major points to tiny details. The Lake Erie piracy of 1864, as described in this book, does not remotely resemble, for example, what actually occurred. The "battle," such as it was, took place on Middle Bass Island, not South Bass. John Brown, Jr. had no escaped slaves working for him, and it was he who went to warn officials at Johnson's Island prison, not a former slave. Co. K, 130th OVI boys captured were in mufti and had not been sent to Put-in-Bay. They were on the "Island Queen," bound for Toledo to be mustered out after 100 days service. The "Island Queen," so important to the story, was omitted completely. Rowing a boat from Put-in-Bay to Johnson's Island would have taken many hours, not minutes as the novel implies. It took John Brown, Jr. at least 12 hours to make the journey.
Among the tiny details: the CSA never issued coins; the Perry Monument at Put-in-Bay is NOT the second tallest monument in the U.S.--at least 3 others are taller; the number of guns on USS MICHIGAN is wrong. The names of the "pirates" are incorrect. Nitpicking? Ah, but the devil is in the details, as the lawyers say.
Pehaps if one were not aware of the history and had never been to Put-in-Bay, some of this wouldn't matter. But the glaring errors of the craft of writing would still remain. Misspelling is still misspelling. Alas, carelessness is the fatal flaw in any endeavor, writing included.
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