Deadly Shoals

October 15, 2007
New Zealand historian Druett’s uneven fourth Wiki Coffin whodunit (after 2006’s Run Afoul
) finds half-Maori navigator and “linguister” Wiki investigating theft and murder in Patagonia. It’s January 1839, and Wiki, as sheriff’s representative aboard the U.S. Exploring Expedition ship Swallow
, agrees to help outraged whaler Captain Stackpole, who claims to have been roundly cheated. Trader Caleb Adams took Stackpole’s money and vanished, along with the schooner Stackpole was buying. When Wiki goes looking for Adams, he finds only his corpse. The bill of sale has been stolen from Adams’s store and a clerk murdered as well. Gauchos, Indians, revolutionaries and adventurers flock across the beautifully rendered landscape. Druett’s meticulous research shows in the vivid characters (including historical figures), but irrelevant passages of lush detail smother the plot, letting it resurface only in a late and hurried blurt of exposition. A better balance between detail and story would have made for smoother sailing.

August 1, 2007
In the fourth series title, jack-of-all-trades Wiki Coffin plays sheriff when a New England whaler's ship vanishes and a dead body surfaces in the Rio Negro. Druett lives in New Zealand.

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2007
Maritime mystery fans will welcome the return of Wiki Coffin, the half-Maori linguist traveling with the U.S. South Seas Naval Exploring Expedition of 1838. Those familiar with the series will not be surprised that, once again, Wiki is called upon to perform duties extending well beyond his official capacity as ships translator. This time around he must act as a de facto sheriff when a New England whaler is cheated out of both $1,000 and a schooner. As the representative of U.S. law and order for the expedition, Wiki penetrates the infamous Rio Negro region of Patagonia in search of a thief and murderer. Druett continues to pepper her suspenseful plots with the same type of authentic seafaring facts and lore that so distinguished the novels of the late Patrick OBrien.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)