Pirate Latitudes

Finished reading Michael Crichton's Pirate Latitudes today. A fast, easy read, fun, lots of adventure, very enjoyable.

A number of characters from various walks of life - lawful and unlawful, highborn and low - makes for an interesting story. Action - including sabotage, naval engagements, piracy (of course), sharks, unfriendly natives, escapes, a hurricane, treachery, violent death - permeates the novel. I kept wondering, okay, how are these men going to get out of this danger?

Pirate Latitudes was found as a completed novel in Crichton's papers after his death. In some ways, though, it felt incomplete. There were a number of plot elements that were not exploited very well, that came and went too quickly. I think any one of them could have been utilized to build the action and suspense even further. Even so, this book would make just as good a movie as so many of his other books have.

Anyone planning a vacation to the Caribbean should read this book. But be warned: this is not Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean.

Also recommended: James Burney's History of the Buccaneers of America.