SAILING BOOK REVIEWS 

The three reviews below were taken from the book covers on the books that I checked out of the library. Reviews added to this page on December, 2007.

Buried At Sea  by Paul Garrison -- This is an electrifying tale of adventure and danger thousands of miles from civilization and safety. Jim Leighton is young, fit and hungry for excitement – and his dream of adventure is coming true, now that he’s been hired as a deckhand and personal trainer to a wealthy investment banker and setting sail for Rio de Janeiro aboard the luxury yacht "Hustle".

But Jim’s enigmatic employer is not what he seems. With all his money, charm and seafaring tales, Will Sparks is a man who’s guarding a terrifying, potentially lethal secret. And in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Sparks makes a startling announcement: They are changing course for Africa because someone is pursuing them. Someone who wants them dead.

With no previous sailing experience – far from the sanctuary of land and in the company of a stranger who is possibly delusional and certainly dangerous – Jim is suddenly trapped in a harrowing race for survival across the vast waters of the globe, fleeing a faceless threat that inexplicably knows where they are and where they are going. And when destiny places him alone at the helm Jim’s options are reduced to two; sail or die - because the terror relentlessly approaching at breakneck speed will not be shaken off or deterred – nor will it rest until "Hustle" and Jim Leighton both lie broken and lifeless on the ocean floor.

A novel of nonstop action and suspense, Paul Garrison’s unparalleled thriller brilliantly combines the magnificence and mercilessness of the natural water world with the darkest nature of man and the nightmare of modern technology. An intense and enthralling reading experience, it will surely stand with the great classic tales of sea adventure.

Price using Amazon search box:  Paperback = $7.99 (New) .01 (Used)

The Ripple Effect by Paul Garrison -- Aiden Page wanted only to escape. The CFO of a bank deep in debt and under investigation by the Department of Justice, Aiden saw his chance and took it, leaving behind his family, his creditors and his persecutors by convincing them of his death. He succeeds in his deception until one night when, tortured by guilt and loneliness, he places a call to this teenage daughter, Morgan. He only utters a single word, but like a solitary ripple spreading across the water, it is enough to convince Morgan that her father is still alive.

Determined to be reunited with her father and confident that she knows where he might be going, Morgan sets out on an ambitious and dangerous journey to a small Pacific island. With little money, no driver’s license and no passport, Morgan attempts to reach her destination by sailboat, prepared to fight through hostile waters, and hostile men, if it means finding her father.

But Morgan isn’t the only one searching for Aiden. The same people who engineered his company’s collapse know that he is the only man who can uncover a conspiracy that could destroy far more than one bank or a single life. The group is unconstrained by morality, undeterred by mercy, and it will do anything in its power, including using Morgan as a pawn, if it ensures that Aiden Page remains a corpse. Now Aiden must solve the mystery behind his exile if he hopes to save not just his own life but his daughter’s as well. Before his race is over, he will discover that thousands of lives may depend upon the actions of a dead man.

Price using Amazon search box:  Paperback = $7.99 (New) .01 (Used)

Sea Hunter by Paul Garrison -- a charter captain in the British Virgin Islands, David Hope is a man severely shaken by personal loss and looking for nothing more than one last client to round out the season. At first it seems Sally Moffitt is his salvation. Beautiful and reckless, a filmmaker specializing in the mysteries of the deep, she meets David in a Tortola bar. And before long they are riding the placid Caribbean waters aboard David’s catamaran, "Oona", carrying a cache of "liberated" film equipment.

They aren’t alone. There is something swimming beneath the surface, sleek and frightening – an inexplicable perversion of the natural order never before caught on film – until now. No sooner is Sally’s precious footage shot and secured than they are hailed by a huge, elaborately fitted research vessel – a towering high-tech windjammer under the command of one William Tree.

Though charmed by the amiable, obese, and wildly eccentric Tree – a scion of one of America’s wealthiest and most powerful families, David and Sally are not ready to trust him with their discovery, for the big man knows more than he is letting on. And he would brush them aside as easily as he would an annoying insect in his single minded pursuit of a dark and brilliant vision that is slowly coming to light – one that the whole world will recognize ... and fear.

But David and Sally have something Tree desperately needs, and they intend to keep it hidden - until catastrophe strikes. A nightmare uncontained and all too real is rising up from the depths, setting the two adventurers off on a breakneck hunt for answers to the greatest and most devastating mystery the seas have ever nurtured – a mystery that is now, ruthlessly and relentlessly hunting them.

Crackling with tension and alive with the salt-spray tinged authenticity that is Garrison’s trademark, "Sea Hunter" is a magnificent voyage of uncharted waters, as deep and mysterious as the ocean itself.

Price using Amazon search box:  Paperback = $1.83 (New) .01 (Used)

ADDITIONAL REVIEWS

Hooked:  Pirates, Poaching and the Perfect Fish by G. Bruce Knecht -- Here is a Review of this book excerpted from the West Marine web site books section:  There was a note with the review as follows:

"Highly recommended by Randy Repass, Chairman and Founder of West Marine."

This modern pirate yarn has all the makings of a great true adventure tale and is also an exploration of the ways our culinary tastes have all manner of unintended consequences for the world around us.

Hooked is a story about the poaching of the Patagonian toothfish (known to gourmands as Chilean Sea Bass) and is built around the pursuit of the illegal fishing vessel Viarsa by an Australian patrol boat, Southern Supporter, in one of the longest pursuits in maritime history.

Author G. Bruce Knecht chronicles how an obscure fish merchant in California discovered and renamed the fish, kicking off a worldwide craze for a fish no one had ever heard of - and everyone had to have. With demand exploding, pirates were only too happy to satisfy our taste for Chilean Sea ass. Knecht - whose previous book, The Proving Ground, was hailed by Walter Cronkite as a sailing masterpiece...a tale more thrilling than fiction - captivates readers by deftly shifting among the story’s nail-biting elements: The perilous chase at sea through frenzied winds, punishing waves, and an obstacle course of icebergs; the high-stakes environmental battle and courtroom drama; and the competitive battle among the world’s restaurants to serve the perfect, flaky, white-fleshed fish.

         Price using Amazon search box: New = $16.47, Used & New from $12.50

The Reviews marked with "**" below are from LATITUDE 38, December, 2003 edition, Volume #318

** The Hidden Treasures of San Francisco Bay (photos by Dennis Anderson, $30) -- When Anderson, an international travel and resort photographer (and occasional photo contributor to Latitude 38) conceived this book, he never realized it would take five years of buzzing around the Bay in a dinghy and slogging through marshes to see it to completion.  But he has achieved more than a collection of pretty pictures here.  We were surprised at the emotion these photos elicited -- a sort of bittersweet glimpse into a past we never knew, if you will.  In a San Francisco Bay largely hidden from the masses, Anderson found and photographed tule elk (yes, elk), otters, and rough-legged hawks.  He flew above the Bay to capture the convolutions of salt marshes, and dove below it to capture astounding photos of bat rays and overgrown wrecks in the Richmond Inner harbor.  On more familiar subjects, he chronicled a herring harvest and captured a number of sailing and power vessels.  Text by biologist/writer Jerry George compliments the visual images without intruding on them.  Overall, a beautiful work that would be a great addition to the library of anyone who still hears the Bay sirens singing.

Price using Amazon search box:  Hardcover is $18.87 -- Paperback - used and new from $5.50