Joan Druett Shark Island

Shark Island

Joan Druett

St. Martin's, Oct 2005, $23.95, 288 pp.

ISBN: 0312334567

In 1838 Wiki Coffin enjoys his work as the linguist with the U.S. Exploring Expedition though he knows that long stretches along the Atlantic are boring and seemingly endless. Besides being the official translator to the seven vessel research project, he also does anything else his friend former Vincennes Captain George Rochester needs doing to keep the exploration running smooth. However, since Commander Wilkes demoted George to the rank of midshipman, Wiki is considering returning home.

Wilkes dispatches the Swallow headed by Lieutenant Forsythe with Wiki aboard to take a look at allegedly uninhabited Ilha Tubarao which is Portuguese for Shark Island. The crew finds the distressed sealer Annawan taking in water after hitting the reef near the island. Wilkes wonders if these sailors claiming to be out of Connecticut are pirates as there are no seals in the equatorial zone. Not long after the naval crew of the Swallow and Wiki board the damaged ship, the murdered corpse of Annawan's Captain Reed is found with the evidence clearly pointing towards Lieutenant Forsythe as the culprit. Though he detests Forsythe and knows first hand how violent and abusive the lieutenant is, Wiki believes he did not commit the homicide and sets out to prove who did.

SHARK ISLAND, the sequel to fabulous WATERY GRAVE, is an excellent historical mystery that uses as the setting of the real U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838. The who-done-it is cleverly devised so that the audience like most of the sailors leans heavily towards Forsythe as the killer. The hero courageously investigates in spite of loathing the prime culprit. However, although the homicide case is fun to follow, the seafaring scientific expedition makes this must reading for historical fans.

Harriet Klausner