Precious Cargo [Hardcover]

Dr. Clyde W. Ford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 9, 2008

Charlie Noble, former-Coast-Guard-officer-turned-marine-PI, is back. This time, he is hot on the trail of a human trafficking scheme that begins in Mexico…and ends in murder.

Still reeling from the untimely death of his wife, Charlie begins to warm to the idea of a second chance at true love with new girlfriend Kate Sullivan. These plans are quickly docked when boating friends Marvin and Angela Baynes come to him with a horrifying discovery—the body of an unidentified young woman impaled on the flukes of their boat anchor. The Bayneses themselves lost a child years ago. No stranger to loss, Charlie finds it impossible not to help them—even though it could mean putting his new romance in jeopardy.

Charlie enlists a friend, Raven, a Native-American salvage diver. Together, the pair plunge beneath the waters of Puget Sound to seek out any clues about the identity of the dead woman and how she wound up there. But they find more bodies instead—all young, all female, all Hispanic. Soon Charlie finds himself navigating a course that leads him through the choppy waters of transporting human cargo, and right into the seedy underworld of the Northwest’s sex trade.

With its fresh, nautical flavor, riveting mystery, and incredible depth of humanity, Precious Cargo is a winner from Clyde Ford that is truly unique—and compulsively readable.

While reading Precious Cargo, you can go online to the book’s website, www.clydeford.com/onscene.aspx, click on any place name from the book and fly there with Google Earth. Once there, you can have any number of multimedia, interactive experiences: listen to the author read from the book, watch a video interview featuring Clyde, learn more about the locations, and even see live webcam footage.
 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Ford's undistinguished second Charlie Noble thriller (after 2005's Red Herring), Noble has found a second career as a PI in Eagle Harbor, Wash., after his promising career with the Coast Guard was cut short by his refusal to doctor a report. Noble sets aside plans for a romantic getaway with his significant other, Kate Sullivan, his first major relationship since the death of his wife, after deciding to accept a new assignment. Marvin and Angela Baynes, who have been haunted by the decades-old disappearance of their only daughter, are horrified when a dead girl is pulled from the bottom of the sound by their boat's anchor. The couple hire Noble to identify both the victim and her killer. Aided by Raven, a skilled diver, Noble soon finds two other corpses and begins to probe the victims' link to a brothel. Readers should be prepared for routine prose ("Damn relationships... I hate 'em and I love 'em") and a by-the-numbers plot.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

A yacht weighs anchor near Bellingham, Washington, and the body of a young Latina woman is found hanging on the anchor fluke. The discovery plunges African American private investigator Charlie Noble and his taciturn former Navy SEAL buddy, Native American Raven, into a case involving human trafficking and forced prostitution. Precious Cargo is an exciting, engaging, and earnest novel about a kind of nautical knight errant who metes out justice not from horseback but from the deck of a classic old trawler that also serves as his home. The plot ambles a bit at the beginning as Ford shapes characters and locale, but it quickly builds to gale force for the resolution. The environs of the San Juan Islands, the sea passages that separate them, and the Olympic Mountains, as well as the details of live-aboard life, are lovingly and knowingly rendered, and good maps allow readers who haven’t sailed the San Juans to follow Charlie’s course. Future books in the series will follow Charlie north, up the Inside Passage toward Alaska. Plan on being on board. --Thomas Gaughan

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Vanguard Press; 1 edition (September 9, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593154852
• ISBN-13: 978-1593154851
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,923,611 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Clyde W. Ford was born in New York City. He graduated from Wesleyan University, Western States Chiropractic College, and the Psychosynthesis Institute of New York.

Clyde has taught Swahili at Columbia University, African American history at Western Washington University, and, somatic psychology at the Institut f'r Angewandte Kinesiologie in Freiburg, Germany. He was the editor of Leading Edge Bulletin, a monthly newsletter of personal and social transformation, published by Marilyn Ferguson, author of The Aquarian Conspiracy (Tarcher, 1980).

Jonathan Young, Joseph Campbell's archivist, described Clyde's work in mythology as "picking up where Joseph Campbell left off." His books have been translated into German and Portuguese.

Clyde is a much sought after public speaker with frequent appearances at bookstores, educational institutions, business and professional associations, and civic organizations around the country. Over the past twenty years he has performed hundreds of media interviews, and he has appeared on shows such as the Oprah Winfrey Show, and New Dimensions Radio to discuss his writing and work.

Clyde currently lives in Bellingham, Washington where he writes and enjoys cruising the waters of the Inside Passage aboard his single engine biodiesel trawler.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bellingham Devoted Fan, September 2, 2008

By 

Ginger Holland (Bellingham, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Precious Cargo (Hardcover)

I couldn't wait to read Precious Cargo after reading the first Charlie Noble book, Red Herring. I was not surprised that I also couldn't put this book down. Clyde Ford takes you, with his characters, through a spellbinding story and has you experience beautiful destinations. His characters become real as you are able to share their journey. A great mystery fan, I so admire Charlie's theories and deductions. Raven entering into the scheme of things adds depth. Great action, great scenes, heartfelt characters, great author. What more could you ask for, but more books. Thanks, Clyde.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love in a Human Trafficking Murder., May 26, 2009

By 

Cym H. Lowell "www.cymlowell.blogspot.com" (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Precious Cargo (Mass Market Paperback)

Precious Cargo, by Clyde Ford (Vanguard Press 2008)

Imagine being on a fishing expedition with your sweetheart on a peaceful stretch of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. When you are done with the joys of the evening and lift the anchor, the dead body of a woman is impaled on the flukes of the anchor.

What would you do? Clyde Ford called Charlie Noble, a former Coast Guard officer who has become a marine PI. Charlie has other thoughts in mind for his time, specifically with his own new ladyfriend, Kate Sullivan. But he wants to assist the couple who actually discovered the body.

Our hero engages a Native American diver, Raven, who has relationships with nautical and nature people all around the waterways. In the course of the adventure, it is discovered that the young lady who became a submerged corpse was ensnared in the sex trade beginning in Mexico and ending in Pacific Northwest. The bad guys, from Texas, come into the peaceful waterways in a huge yacht that looks like it should have been in the harbors on Monte Carlo for its parties not the inlets of these straits.

Clyde Ford writes an excellent, engaging, and easily readable story. Against the background of murder in the human trafficking business, and beauty of the natural settings, the romance of Charlie and Kate is an endearing story all in its own. Two people with their own lives lived before meeting have their own needs, which they struggle to comes to grips with, as Charlie engages in the life-and-death struggle to solve the crime. At least one of the struggles has a clever and charming twist, so silence is best on this.

I read the book straight through, fascinated with what would happen to the lovers and the unfolding of the central mystery.

A hearty recommendation for a fine story written by a world class author.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great book from Clyde Ford, October 24, 2008

By 

R. Hurst (Olympia WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Precious Cargo (Hardcover)

If you are into mysteries and have not read Clyde Ford books, you have missed out on a super writer. His books have realistic characters and great plots are interwoven with his knowledge of boating in the Northwest. Don't miss his books!