Pirates & Privateers: Joan Druett's Books

Captain Jahaziel “Jake” Dexter believes a pirate’s old sea journal contains the map to the lost treasure of Panama. Back in 1670 the Spaniards feared that Henry Morgan intended to steal their gold, so they loaded it onto a ship with a group of nuns. The ship and all aboard were never heard from again. Nearly two centuries later, Jake and his crew arrive at Judas Island in hopes of retrieving that gold.

While his men dig on the spooky island, Jake remains aboard his brig, waiting for his mate to return. Charlie has rowed over to a ship to broker a deal for whale oil, which they will sell in Valparaiso, Chile for a tidy profit. What Charlie returns with, however, is a passenger – and a female one to boot.

Harriet Gray’s presence is inconvenient and unwanted, but the eighteen-year-old actress has only one goal in mind. She must get to Valparaiso before the deadline passes. She can’t understand why the “gallant and kindly gentleman of the sea” insists that she return to the whaleship. That vessel has since disappeared, and Harriet feels she’s been duped for the second time in her life. Her bridegroom abandoned her soon after the wedding, leaving her destitute and alone. Now, Jake threatens to dump her on the first ship they pass, so she must find a way to change his mind.

Before long, Harriet discovers she’s among freebooters who run the Gosling like a pirate ship – each has a vote and majority rules. When the Goslings fail to find the gold, Harriet sees her chance. She purchases a share in the brig, much to Jake’s chagrin, and although the men are against a woman having a vote, they agree to her proposal to sail to Valparaiso where her brother, Royal, has rounded up a herd of alpaca that needs to be smuggled out of Chile and for which the British government will pay £1,000 once they are delivered to Australia. The Chileans aren’t about to let foreigners abscond with their treasured alpacas, and Jake, the Goslings, Harriet, and Royal must use all of their wits and luck just to escape with their lives.

Then news arrives that gold has been struck in California, and Jake cooks up a tidy little plan that will net them a huge profit. If the tales of the strike are true. If they reach San Francisco. If the despicable Murieta brothers don’t harm Harriet and take over the ship.

Judas Island is the first book in the Promise of Gold trilogy, a spellbinding adventure series set in the 1840s. Combined with the two subsequent titles – Calafia’s Kingdom (book two) and Dearest Enemy (book three) – these stories undulate like storm-swept seas as the Goslings and the Grays search for treasure. The author’s note is really a list of recommended historical resources, rather than an account of the history behind the novel, which I would have preferred. There’s also a glossary for those unfamiliar with nautical terms.

Since books two and three take place on land, they’re not reviewed here, but I heartily recommend reading all three titles in this series. I found it refreshing and a real joy to be able to read what happens from the moment Jake and Harriet meet until the mysteries that entwine their lives are solved. Complete with humor, romance, tragedy, and fantastical exploits, Joan Druett expertly recreates the dizzying days of the California gold rush, where fortunes could be made and lost in the span of a day. Her characters come from all walks of life and are so vividly portrayed that they walk off the pages into your room. The Promise of Gold trilogy is an exhilarating voyage not soon to be forgotten.

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The Money Ship
by Joan Druett
Old Salt Press, 2017, print ISBN 978-0-9941246-4-7, US $13.95
e-book ISBN 978-1-9941246-6-0, US $9.99

Inquisitive and headstrong, six-year-old Jerusha Gardiner loves being with her father aboard his whaling ship. She basically does what she wants since her parents assume someone else is watching her. (She often does the same ashore. Although she tries to please her mother, she usually fails. It’s no different on the Huntress.) As the three-year voyage passes, her inquisitive nature compels her to learn whatever she can, including studying discarded medical books and asking the first mate to teach her navigation.

Going to sea is more his mother’s idea, rather than Nelson O’Cain’s. It does provide him with one advantage; he’s far from his vindictive half-brother, the duke’s legitimate son. During the voyage, his meteoric rise from apprentice to first mate leaves Nelson feeling ill-equipped to handle any problems that arise or Captain Gardiner’s precocious daughter. When he finds her aloft, away from her mother’s rants, he keeps her secret and, when his brother comes aboard with spiteful news, she is the only one to offer solace.

After a strange sail is sighted, Jerusha is sent to visit the captain in hopes of acquiring some fresh supplies. She expects to find someone like her father, but Captain Rochester of the Hakluyt is quite different and his cabin is like a magical place. He is a collector of treasure stories, so Jerusha shares the only one she knows – the day her father, as a young boy, found gold aboard a wrecked money ship – long before he became a sailor and was pressed into the Royal Navy. Rochester shares a tale of his search for the lost or buried treasure of a pirate, which he believes is somewhere in the South China Sea.

As time passes, the Gardiners and Rochester frequently cross paths as they visit ports in these exotic waters. One day, Rochester shares his latest find to prove his hypothesis, which is reinforced when Jerusha catches a fish that turns out to have a plate of gold within its belly. No one is getting younger and Rochester’s sudden death leaves Jerusha and her father, as her guardian, owners of the Hakluyt. Nelson also leaves to sign aboard an East Indiaman, but during a visit, he intervenes when his brother attempts to blackmail Captain Gardiner and physically threatens Jerusha. Then his brother is murdered, Nelson is arrested, and Jerusha is sent to the United States to live with an aunt she’s never met while her father remains in Borneo intent on continuing Rochester’s treasure hunt and conducting a profitable trading venture that raises the ire of the British East India Company.

The Money Ship isn’t a typical nautical tale. Rather it is a coming-of-age story in both familiar places and exotic locales. Divided into four separate parts, it follows the lives of Jerusha from childhood into womanhood and Nelson, who is just entering adulthood when he signs aboard the whaler. While no specific dates are given, it begins after the Napoleonic Wars have ended and transports readers from England to Singapore, Borneo, and Massachusetts. Druett wonderfully populates her story with a plethora of characters that include pirates, Sea Dyaks, missionaries, Illanoans, and many others both reputable and despicable. She intricately weaves a tapestry of unusual cultures and complicated politics with infidelity, secrets, arranged marriage, and betrayal. From first page to last, The Money Ship transports readers back to the early 19th century on an epic journey spiced with high adventure and contemptible lows. Be forewarned: the tempests blow not only at sea, but also on land and one is never quite certain who will survive.

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Daughters of the Storm
by Joan Druett
Old Salt Press, 2021, e-book ASIN B09LSWRK58, US $8.99 / UK £6.68
Print ISBN 978-0995130937, US $19.95 / UK £15.03

When Helen Pederson enters the room at her estranged husband’s California estate, she expects to learn what hostess duties he needs her to perform this time. Instead, she is confronted by six individuals who together stir up a two-decades-old nightmare. Two she knows well. Her husband, Harold Pederson, runs the wealthy family empire that his grandfather founded. Once he makes a decision, it’s impossible to change his mind. The second is their daughter, Jewel, who suffers from a congenital mental illness that manifests itself in angry tantrums that have become more violent as she ages.

The other four people are Skye Hamilton, Maggie Bacchante, Jack Giacomo, and Kate Giacomo. Skye is the business manager of Bacchante Wines. Maggie, whose family owns the winery, is an up-and-coming fashion designer. Although they are not related, she and Kate look amazingly like twins and they grew up together. Kate is a bestselling author. Her adopted father, Jack, is a well-known fireman who specializes in fighting oil well fires.

Twenty years ago, in the midst of a hurricane, three babies were born: Jewel, Kate, and Maggie. Three little girls. Three identical cribs. Amid the chaos, no labels identified who was who or which baby belonged to which mother. Now, Harold wants to know which is truly his daughter. He has a plan to learn the truth – sail to the Pacific island where the hurricane hit – and he has the money to ensure that no one refuses to accompany him on the cruise.

Druett steps away from her traditional historical fiction to craft a modern-day mystery. Her characters are well-developed and unique from each other, in spite of the similarities between Kate and Maggie. A shady sailing boat, a kidnapping, unexpected deaths, odd financial manipulations, a peculiar assistant, Jewel’s tantrums, and a brewing hurricane add further spice to the suspense. Stirring up the past is never a good idea and doing so often results in unintended consequences as Daughters of the Storm demonstrates in a fashion similar to Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap. Readers who enjoy this first offering in the Bacchante series will eagerly await the next book, Storm Swept.

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Storm Swept
by Joan Druett
Old Salt Press, 2022, e-book ASIN B09WCFBYBJ, US $4.99 / UK £3.78
Print ISBN 978-0995130944, US $12.95 / UK £9.84

A veiled threat of blackmail brings Helen Pederson to a remote village in Mexico. The sender is Pierce Brooke, her ex-husband, a bitter and angry man who is confined to a wheelchair after a car accident. The picture he sees in a magazine reminds him of his mother, which means Helen has kept the knowledge of his daughter a secret. Except that the woman in the picture is not Helen’s daughter. It’s Kate Giacomo, one of the three girls born on the same night in the midst of a cyclone two decades earlier. When Helen Pederson shows Brooke a picture of her daughter, the image resurrects haunting nightmares that he thought were long-buried.

While dining with his adopted daughter Kate, Jerry Giacomo receives a call from Harold Pederson. Pirates have attacked one of his cruise ships. The passengers – seniors with money – successfully fight off the pirates, but Harold knows something must be done to ward off major publicity damage that can impact his bottom line. To thwart this possibility, he wants Jerry to join him in Manila to conduct anti-piracy drills and arrange for a more secure ship. After Jerry agrees to come, a reporter approaches Kate seeking an interview. The article, when it’s published, relegates her to a sentence or two, while the majority is all about Jerry.

Maggie Bacchante, Kate’s best friend, is upset because the junior assistants, of whom she is one, in the New York office of the Italian fashion designer for which they work hate her. One so much so that the person plants drugs in her bag, which results in Maggie being fired from her dream job. Helen promises to help; in the meantime, Maggie decides to accompany Jerry and Kate to the Philippines.

Once there, they reunite with Skye Hamilton, who works for the Bacchante family. His expertise in business management has him working with Harold to get to the bottom of a money-laundering scheme that pertains to Pederson Strategic. Instead of financing eco-friendly projects, someone in the upper echelons of the foundation has been using it to launder large sums of money ever since it started. Hard to believe since the deal was brokered by Brooke, whom Harold already knew, and was between him and two highly respected men, the Honourable Aidan Blackwell and Zaid Faisal of Saudi Oil.

Now, as Pedersons and Bacchante famiglia gather once again, it doesn’t take long for those long-ago threads to start unwinding, especially once the creepy reporter tells Kate that Blackwell wants to meet her. If that’s not trouble enough, a British warship wants to commandeer Pederson’s Storm Swept and Jerry to conduct an anti-piracy raid to recover a missing freighter and her pilot. That misadventure puts them all at risk.

This second title in The Bacchante Family series is an intricate web of seemingly disparate threads that Druett skillfully weaves together into a satisfying mystery. She inserts accurate information on pirates and anti-piracy strategies in ways that are both entertaining and enlightening. Story lines begun in the first book are neatly resolved in this tale, although those unfamiliar with that story might miss the subtle hints as to why Jewel is only seen in pictures. For the most part, Storm Swept works as a stand-alone story; for a fuller understanding of the characters and the story, I recommend reading Daughters of the Storm first.

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Run Afoul
by Joan Druett
St. Martin’s, 2006, ISBN 978-0-312-35336-0, US $23.95 / CAN $31.95

Wiki Coffin, half-Maori/half-American, serves as a linguist for an expedition to Brazil overseen by the United States Navy. Soon after their arrival in late 1838, Assistant Astronomer Grimes takes ill. With his dying breath, he accuses Festin, the ship’s new cook, of poisoning him. Since Festin is already under suspicion for a previous murder, he’s immediately arrested, and Wiki finds himself embroiled in another mystery. His father, a sea captain, is also in port and one of Captain Coffin’s Brazilian friends invites Coffin, Wiki, and members of the expedition on a scientific mission that has them visiting various plantations. At their last stop, one of the men is killed and Captain Coffin is arrested. Wiki must unravel the threads that surround the two murders to discover the true killer’s identity, but it is a mystery that remains puzzling until the final solution.

Run Afoul is a subtle mystery, rather than one where you figure out who-done-it halfway through the story. Secrets abound and the reader is never quite certain the characters are as honest as they seem. Druett deftly weaves her knowledge of shipboard life and Maori customs into a scientific expedition while depicting the world of 19th-century society in Brazil and the American navy.

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