Heart of Steele

October 1, 2003
Gr 4-7-In this third book in the series, the search for villainous Jack Steele takes an evil twist when 12-year-old Davy Shea and the crew from the Aurora discover a derelict ship plundered, its crew murdered, and a placard giving the credit to the Aurora's Captain Hunter. Determined to capture the pirate, the men follow the trail of similar murderous sites, only to find themselves the target in equally fierce battles. Davy helps his Uncle Patch, the ship's surgeon, but the casualties mount until Captain Hunter is forced to return to Sir Henry Morgan for more men. There he forms an alliance with his former enemy, the Spanish captain Don Esteben, and together they spring a trap on Jack Steele. But though they destroy Steele's armada of pirates, the Red Queen slips away, and the hunt continues. The battles take center stage here as the Aurora seems to fight her way out of one and straight into another, with lots of fighting and no concept of the time necessary for recovery and healing. Still, this is a fine yarn, exciting and believable in the authors' depiction of the lives of sailors in the 1680s.-Linda Bindner, Truman State University, Kirksville, MO

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2003
Gr. 5-8. In the " Guns of Tortuga" [BKL F 1 03], 12-year-old Davy Shea, his uncle Patch, and Captain William Hunter try to track down the elusive and evil pirate Jack Steele. At the beginning of this latest installment in a series about nineteenth-century swashbucklers, Davy and his team discover that Steele has been engaging in a sort of high-seas character assassination; while attacking ships, he leaves clues that point to Captain Hunter. Davy and his compatriots once again team up with an experienced Spanish pirate hunter, and they manage to discover Steele's secret hideout. But, once again, Steele proves difficult to capture. As in the other books in the series, the authors nicely balance a host of seafaring facts with plenty of action. The battle scenes are particularly exciting and somewhat gory; the authors aren't averse to describing the deadly effects of a cutlass, for example. A solid high-seas adventure for fans of pirate stories.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)