I'll start by saying ignore the back of the book. The publisher's description is incorrect - although Charlie found the body, he was never one of the prime suspects.

Briar Creek is in an upheaval after a salvage company arrives with plans to dig up Captain Kidd's buried treasure, which can supposedly be found somewhere on Pirate Island. It sounds too amazing to be true, except that Mr. Riordan, the owner of the salvage company, has Captain Kidd's very own treasure map. The treasure hunt could turn Pirate Island into a huge tourist attraction, but it would also cause ecological damage. While Milton Duffy, a well-known and well-liked member of the Friends of the Library, tries to protect the island, Trudi Hargrave, the head of Briar Creek's tourism department, does everything she can to help Riordan's work move forward. Then Trudi turns up murdered, and Lindsey finds herself in the thick of things as usual.

This is probably the best book in the series so far. I loved the way the mystery tied in with Briar Creek's history. If I had one complaint about the way things worked out, it was that it took a lot longer than I expected for Trudi to finally be murdered. Which sounds terrible, but waiting so long for the death I knew was supposed to happen made the book drag a little. Plus, Trudi was kind of annoying.

The fact that Sully and Lindsey were finally dating didn't lessen Sully's appeal. I was happy to see that Sully was still giving Beth rides and waiting to make sure she got into her house okay before driving off. Little things like that really demonstrated that he wasn't just being nice in the previous books in order to spend more time with Lindsey. He also handled the sudden appearance of Lindsey's ex-fiance, John, surprisingly well. I expected aggravating amounts of jealousy, and instead he opted to trust Lindsey, stand back (mostly), and let her deal with John in her own way. Unfortunately,

McKinlay opted to throw all of this out the window at the end of the book. It was very sudden and felt out of character for Sully, even taking into account the amount of stress he was under.

(spoiler show)

I continued to like Officer Emma Plewicki - I hope she gets more page-time in future books. The real surprise, however, was Chief Daniels. In the first book he was a stereotypical small town cop, too focused on his initial assumptions to even consider other possibilities. In this latest book, he had visibly mellowed, and I actually found myself liking him.

This was a great entry in the series, although I'm worried about what the ending will mean for the next book. Crossing my fingers that McKinlay doesn't drag this development out too long.

Extras:

• The Briar Creek Library Guide to Crafternoons
• Readers Guide for The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Lindsey's pattern for her cross-stitch sampler ("Books are my homeboys.")
• Recipe for Charlene's cucumber cups stuffed with feta

 

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book from the Sea of Pirates Series. You need to read in order. I was a little bit disappointed with this book, some part of the story bored me, I skipped them. Too many repetitions. The first book was really great, though. Will definitely wait for the third release. Three stars!

I feel in love with Kurson's Shadow Divers, so when  this came up I just has to grab it. These divers are amazing men, the amount of time and money this takes is astronomical and this plays havoc on lives and relationships.

In this book they are looking for a pirate's ship, the Golden Fleece of John Bannister. Bannister is the only pirate that actually beat the Royal Navy. There is so much more to, this book, a history of piracy, the leasing pirates of the time and how they fought and the treasures they stole. Some of the descriptions of what they did to captains and crews of the ships that fought back were quite graphic but relatively short. An incredible time for piracy. One thing I found most interesting is that there was a true democracy on these pirate ships, way before democracy was even a thought elsewhere.

 

There was quite a bit of bouncing back and forth, but it was all interesting to me, so it was okay and did not take away from my enjoyment of the book. Interesting reading about this because I never had to great an interest in pirates, these men and Munson seem to make everything and anything interesting.

 

ARC from librarything.

**Received this ebook from author in exchange for an honest review**

He stared up at the waning sliver of cresent moon. She drifted on her last leg of her lunar journey across the sky, to hide away from the world before she fully returned to her throne among the stars.

Step aboard the Rissa, her deck is filled with salty sea dogs, who are loyal to their captain. As is the First Mate, Blade, who is Captain Zane's best friend. The bar maid Lianna, has found herself whisked away on this ship (thanks to a Frenchman who hid a medallion called The Serpent in her corset) running from the British Navy. Zane is intrigued by the fiery wench and soon finds himself falling for her. Lianna doesn't have a home to go back to, she's ready to start a new life.

I whole-heartedly enjoyed this book. I have just found the not-so-hidden treasure that is historic romance and I do believe I am hooked. Then, throw in some pirates, crystal clear waters, and beautiful beaches, and I'm definitely caught: hook, line, and sinker. There was not a dull moment to be found in this novel. Honestly, it's a grown-up fairytale that makes you experience that same magical feeling you had when hearing those stories as a child.

I don't want to give too much away, but one of my favorite parts was the pillow fight between Lianna and Sadie. It wasn't a nice little sleep-over pillow fight, either. (As you will find out later on in the story, when they come face to face on the deck after Sadie spread a rumor about Lianna.) I liked this part because it's an example of how relaxed and fun this book is.

Adventure and romance awaits! The only question is what are you waiting for? Get this book, you won't be disappointed. If you've never read historical romance (like me), but you want to give it a try, this would be a great book to start with...especially if you like pirates. I really liked Jennifer Bray-Weber's writing style and I will be reading more books by her in the near future.

This is another collection of short stories staring the ace World War I pilot in his post World War II role as the head of the Scotland Yard Air Police. Yes, that person is Bigglesworth, otherwise known to his friends, and many adoring readers throughout the western world, as Biggles. However, unlike the other collection of short stories from his Scotland Yard days, these stories seem to be a lot broader in scope and do not seem to be replications of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes short stories where you have a section that introduces the situation, a small piece of action, and then the rest of the story were the protagonist explains how he came to his conclusion.

In this collection of stories, we have Biggles going after some pirate treasure.

 

He busts open a watch smuggling racket.

 

 

As well as going after a diamond smuggling racket:

 

 

which happens to be smuggled into England in the stomach of monkeys.

There are a few things that I wish to say about this book that came out for me as I was reading it: the first being the diamond trade, and the second being about the watch smuggling.

It seems that the diamond trade back then was quite restricted, and it is interesting to see how it was viewed back in the 50s. These days (as I suspect was the case back then) diamonds are actually controlled by what I will call a legal cartel. Basically the diamonds that are mined are owned by a small group of people who pretty much lock them away and release them bit by bit to keep the price of the diamonds unnaturally high. I once went around work asking people whether they would still go and buy diamonds if they were worth something like $20.00 a carat, to which the common response was 'no'. Therefore, it is quite understandable that there would be an investigation into a diamond smuggling racket because by smuggling them into the country means that the capitalists who control the diamond trade are quite likely to lose out. Further, Johns seems to think that diamonds were only mined in South Africa however, ignoring the diamond fields here in Australia, there are many other countries in Africa where diamonds are mined, and since the regulations are non-existent one is almost led to believe that the diamond industry is run by a bunch of criminals. For more information on the diamond industry I would recommend the movie Blood Diamond (despite the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio is the leading actor).

 

 

 

The other thing is the thing about the tariffs, which was why Biggles was going after the watch smugglers. Personally this made absolutely no sense to me because most tariffs have been pulled down now so that there is no duty on imports (well, actually there is, which is why they still have duty free shops, but with the advent of the internet you can easily import things without having to pay a duty, unless of course the imports happen to be alcohol or tobacco). That is not entirely true because there are still countries (such as the United States) that have import duties, or provide subsidies to certain industries (such as farming) but in general, most goods these days can be brought into a country without any need to pay any extra costs (and in some cases they are GST free).