Customer Reviews

Buried at Sea

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Paul Garrison just seems to get better and better with each novel. With his knowledge of the sea and his vivid writing style he's sure to please a wide range of readers looking for a great adventure.

Jim Leighton is a spin/aerobics instructor at a fitness center that is owned by his girlfriend's father. He is asked to be a personal trainer and deckhand for a man named Will Clark, a rich venture capitalist that is planning a trip to South America. Jim accepts the job because his girlfriend would like him to get out and have a little adventure before they get married. He got more than he asked for. It turns out that a very powerful group is after Clark and a secret he holds, and will stop at nothing to capture him. The wild ride begins.

I am very impressed with this newest Garrison novel. A nonstop adventure around the world including stops in Nigeria, Buenos Aires, and the Falklands. Abundant in action, drama, suspense, high-tech gadgetry, and even a little humor. A very satisfying and well-rounded story as well. Keep up the good work Paul.

Highly recommended

This is a pretty good book. I'm not normally into nautical books, but this one was well worth the time. I was bothered initially by the fact that the main character, Jim Leighton, was hired to be a personal fitness trainer for the owner of a boat. I just didn't think that would realistically happen. However, Paul Garrison has a good explanation for it, but you have to wait until the end of the book. What I like is the development of Jim from someone who knows nothing about boats to an experienced sea hand. I'd be willing to read another sea novel by Mr. Garrison.

It's hard to describe a book as both full of adventure and boring at the same time, but that is how I found this book to be. The story is about a man with several aliases, owner of a fifty foot sailboat who hires a personal trainer to come on board and keep him "in shape." Little does Jim Leighton, who has little to speak of except nice abs, know that "Will Sparks", the sailboat owner is on the run. From Russian spies to nuclear anythings to satellites in space, someone wants Will Sparks, and wants him badly. Someone with the money, time, and superior intelligence it is going to take to try to keep up with Jim and Will as they sail the ocean all over the world just trying to escape. It seems no port is safe. If you like sailing, you will give this book a five star rating for not only it's adventure content, but the seemingly endless drone of "how to" sail a boat. A very Tom Clancy like story in that the inner and outer and sideways workings of a sailboat compare to his stories of submarines et al. This is where I found it boring, as I know next to nothing about sailboats and am not interested in learning. However, I did find the adventure content excellent, and each time I was sure I'd fall asleep, author Paul Garrison brought it back again. So try it if you like adventure and can handle mechanics, otherwise, leave it for a rainier day.

This book was my first Paul Garrison experience. Although I'm not usually drawn to high seas adventure, something about this one caught my attention. It was a tight, fast paced adventure right up to the finish,when the author seemed to loose steam.The author drew you in thoughout the story,forcing you to care about the characters, especially Will Spark and his beautiful `Hustle'. Unfortunately, all the t's were not not dotted and crossed, losing the opportunity to make a good work-great!

I enjoyed this book. The book description is an accurate summary of the tale. This book is what I expect from an action/adventure tale. I want the action to flow smoothly. I'm not looking for complete plausibility in the story (it is an action/adventure) but it will lose my interest if it crosses into the impossible or ridiculous. Readers who have experience sailing or a particular interest in sailing might enjoy this tale a bit more than the average reader. I will be checking out other works by this author.

This is a fairly fast paced story. A great sailing story if you like sailing and the ocean. There is enough adventure in it to to keep you interested in the story from page to page. The characters are very interesting and thats part of what keeps you reading page after page. I really liked the story and the book. Paul Garrison is a good writer if you like a book that keeps you moving!

Ok, this book will not change your life, but it is a fine read. I have not ever been on a sailboat, and I enjoyed the nautical terminology and learning about the world of sailing while the main character did. You do not have to be an old salt or familiar with the details of the trade winds to grasp the concepts. Overall it was a nice change of pace for me, and while I did not stay up half the night to finish it, I found myself anxious enough to get back to it and sail through another chapter.

I loved Fire and Ice and Red Sky at Morning. But I set this book down because the characters were so thin, if not self-absorbed. Frankly, I didn't want to go on the voyage with them, however harrowing it might be.

Mr. Garrison, you can do better than this

Paul Garrison obviously loves and knows the sea. What other book could spend so much time describing how to do everything you need to know on a sailboat. This should be called SAILING FOR DUMMIES, it's so full of self-congratulatory knowledge. Most writers whose knowledge of certain things manage to make this knowledge a key part of the book and interesting. Sorry to say, Garrison comes up short on this one.

That's not the only problem. This plot is so unbelievable, and the pacing is sluggish to say the least. First of all, we have this Jim Leighton character who is very narcissistic about his unbelievably muscular body. How many times does Garrison exploit this by calling him Mr. Muscles etc., etc. He becomes very boorish even as his role as the novel's hero and focal point increases. Add Will Stark, the sometime hero, sometime villain, and you get another portrait of an ego-driven, self-centered fool who has something somebody really wants. Then add the buffoonish villains who haven't got the sense to send out airplanes or helicopters to find out where young Leighton and Stark are, you get a novel so unfocused and leaden, it's hard to get through it. Not to mention Shannon, Leighton's sweetheart who is stupid enough to join him on his mission.

And let's get real. The sailboat sets out of Barbados, supposedly on its way to South America. Then the villains intercept them and now it's off to South Africa. We get to South Africa and then we're expecting them to return to Florida. But no, Stark insists they go on to Rio De Janeiro. Then Stark goes and dies, leaving Jim to fend for himself, who then decides he needs to go to South America, only to have to divert to the Falkland Islands and then into the Arctic area, where he fights not only the villains but icebergs and snowstorms. Then once that battle is finished, it's back to South Africa to retrieve this mysterious computer chip.
I swear, I was sealogged by the time the book ended.
Garrison has delivered before in "Fire and Ice"; but this one is a real clunker and I'd file it in Davy Jones locker without hesitation.

If this is not the perfect Summer read, I don't know what is. Take a young man at a crossroads in his life, put him on a sailboat with a mysterious, wealthy old salt of dubious ethics. Then add a murderous clan of robber barons with endless resources and a motive to pursue our unlikely heroes who may or may not be in posession of a trillion-dollar industrial secret. Mix in a romance and more wild weather than you've ever seen and you'll be hoping for a rainy day just so you can finish it!