A rather long (469 pages) and slow to read book about various pirates through history. It took me nearly three months to finish. I found it very hard to read, and very uninteresting, mostly. But, some parts WERE interesting. I spent a lot of time looking at maps of the Lynn Massachusetts area to see where the action of the chapter about the Lynn pirates took place.
Peter and Elise save the king of Denmark in book six of the gently Christian adventure series The Young Underground. The story was good, but the children seem oddly contemporary in several ways. I would have liked to see some Danish words used in the story. I did learn several interesting things, for instance that the kings of Denmark were all named either Frederick or Christian for four hundred years.
Thomas Black gets blown up, Kathy dies in a plane crash. A disjointed tale of tin-hat paranoia. Or is it?
Some notes:
Page 110 "The first of the next two bodies was one of the pilots..."
Page 112 "...Around noon a fishing boat had found the second pilot's body..."
Page 116 One of the pilots...were unaccounted for.
Page 141 Two pilots made the case for pilot error or drunkenness less likely.
Page 151 Why did they seem confused about the number of pilots?
Page 161 ...about find the second pilot's corpse yesterday...
I think the author lost track of his pilot count on that page 116 quote.
Quote:
There was nothing lonelier than the shoes of a dead person, nothing quite so personal, so concrete, and useless. (pg. 195)
Thomas Black, P.I., investigates a rich client being blackmailed. Whoops,
QUOTE:
...Kathy opted for conversation. "That's the first time you've ever moaned more than me. " You're the one who does that? I always thought that was some woman hiding in the closet."
Small town fire chief Jim Swope has a problem, his troops are coming up brain-dead and he might have the same problem. A little confusing and far-fetched, great chapter headings.
A group of mountain bikers (three are firemen) encounter jealousy, death, murder, fire, and lactic-acid overload. Not in that order. Very exciting story.
P.I. Thomas Black has to locate the "dream women" of four businessmen.
QUOTE:
"Three against two," Kathy said. "You forgot the clown."
QUOTE:
She stared at me quizzically. "Well?" "Huh?" I asked. "Aren't you going to say something nice?" I thought carefully, but the best I could manage was, "They're real big."
Firefly, #7. The crew make a delivery on the planet Kerry to Duke what's-his-name. Zoe has an feeling something is wrong. It sure is!
Quote:
Shepherd Book shot a look at Jayne, hoping to convey that he believed in Jayne's ability to do the right thing. He wasn't sure he did, actually, but expressing a little belief in folks often went a long way toward them stepping up as they should.
Stephanie Plum looks for her missing uncle Fred and finds out why the garbage isn't being picked up.
QUOTE:
Grandma stared at my chest. "You look different. Are you wearing one of them sports brassieres?" She look more closely. "Hot dog, I know what it is. You're wearing a bulletproof vest. Ellen, look at the," she said to my mother. "Stephanie's wearing a bulletproof vest. Isn't that something?" My mother's face had turned white. "Why me?" she said.
Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum in her sixth outing helps her buddy Ranger nail a gun runner.
SMOKE QUOTE:
Sometimes I envy people who smoke. They always look so happy when they suck that first lungful of tar. I can't think of many things that make me that happy. Maybe birthday cake. [pg. 137].