Customer Reviews

Shipkiller-C

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This book has been out of print for years but I have a precious copy. There are very few good sailing novels; I can count them on one hand. This is one, maybe the best. The story is set in 1978 and there are a few dated political threads to the story. The principle character is a doctor who has invented a digital thermometer and, with the money he has earned from royalties, decides to take a year off and cruise with his wife aboard their ketch. They cross to England where the sailboat is run down by a monster tanker and his wife is lost. He tries to get the law to punish the tanker as it was moving far too fast for the foggy conditions and not keeping a watch. Because it is so huge and the owners so powerful, he finds admiralty law is helpless. He decides to punish the ship himself. The action builds to a tremendous climax. The sailing is all absolutely authentic and every detail is accurate. I have sailed across oceans and will vouch for it. You will not put it down once it starts to build toward the climax.

If you sail, or just love sea adventure, by all means read The Ship Killer. Author Justin Scott knows his boats and the sea; you can almost smell the salt.

But beyond just sailing, this is a fine story of one man's dedication of his life to settling the score with the ship that ran his sailboat down, killed his wife, and left him to die at sea. If you read this story, you'll find yourself re-reading it periodically as I do. Even though it's just one book, not a series, I consider it on a par with the Hornblower saga.

Unhappily, I've found none of Scott's other books worth recommending.