4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent historical mystery, September 28, 2005
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 homiceide case is fun to follow, the seafaring scientific expedition makes this must reading for historical fans.
Harriet Klausner
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderfully detailed historical mystery, July 25, 2010
First Line: The hours were dragging.
It could be that I love well-written books about the sea because there are so many sailors in the family. (I even married an ex-submariner.) New Zealand author Joan Druett has long been one of my favorites for maritime history. When I discovered that she'd begun writing an historical mystery series based on the travels of the United States South Seas Exploring Expedition of 1838 to 1842, I was thrilled. What a perfect movable feast of a setting for a mystery series! If you're one of the many who've never heard of this American expedition, here's a few words about it from Joan Druett herself:
"...huge tracts of the ocean had been charted, plus 800 miles of scarcely known Oregon shore and 1,500 miles of entirely unknown Antarctic coast. The Stars and Stripes had fluttered off the lagoons of well over 200 tropical islands, and more than 4,000 artifacts and 2,000 scientific specimens had been collected, an enormously rich fund that became the foundation of the collection of the new Smithsonian Institution."
As you can see from that small description alone, this is an incredibly rich fishing ground for a mystery series. The detective of the series is half-Maori, half-white Wiki Coffin. Due to his skill in linguistics, he's been hired by the expedition as an interpreter.
In this second book in the series, the ship Wiki is aboard is told to sail to Shark Island off the coast of Brazil to check into an alleged sighting of pirates. When they arrive, they discover a wrecked sealing ship and its crew. They've barely agreed to stay and begin repairs on the ship when its captain is murdered. While the sealing ship is being repaired, Wiki has little choice but to try to find the murderer of the captain... especially since the dead man was the husband of one of Wiki's old flames (who just happens to be on board, too).
I enjoy Druett's writing. She includes so much detail on life aboard ship, on ship repair, on sailing itself, and it's all added so seamlessly into the narrative that I never feel as though I'm reading a gigantic lesson with a quiz to follow at some unspecified date. There is one scene in particular that startled me so badly I almost leapt out of bed (which I thought was a very good thing since I'm so seldom surprised to that degree). The only real quibble I have with the entire book is that the culprit was a bit obvious to me, but it is a very small complaint indeed.
This series is one that I am purposely savoring; reading it very slowly to enjoy the character of Wiki, a wealth of new knowledge, and the settings. If you haven't tried any of Druett's books, I suggest that you do. Non-fiction or historical mystery, you are in for a treat.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Mostly Mystery, Not So Much Nautical, November 22, 2009
This review is from: Shark Island (Wiki Coffin Mysteries 2) (Paperback)
My review of the first Wiki book provided some leeway in my interpretation of what this series was supposed to be. After reading this sequel and now into another sequel, I find that the major content is devoted to a who-done-it theme. The maritime adventure hardly exists. For the most part, the ships lay at anchor in an island bay in this story. I found that the obvious suspect is overlooked and when discovered is a let-down.
Additionally, I'm discovering what appears to be a negative bias as to the capability and character of virtually all of the U.S. naval officers. So far, with the exception of Wiki's officer friend, the rest are seemingly portrayed as prejudiced idiots.
But, hey, I'm learning a lot about native Polynesian customs and language!
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