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
