Pirates & Privateers: Toni Runkle's and Steve Webb's Books

On the day Port Royal hangs the infamous Calico Jack Rackham in 1720, two women and a babe sail for the Carolina coast to begin life anew. Although the child is innocent, he bears the mark of evil. Having been betrayed, Rackham makes a pact with a mysterious African. Being raised from the dead may give immortality but always at a price. This pact involves a curse that transcends generations and those impacted bear a peculiar birthmark.

Fast forward to present day Arizona and a high school swim class. Bonnie Hartwright’s reluctance to change into her bathing suit draws the attention of girls more fortunate than herself – girls with money and family and friends. All of which Bonnie has given up hoping for after fifteen years of being passed from foster family to foster family. She is deathly afraid of water, and with good reason, but her classmates tease and taunt her. When one girl spies Bonnie’s unusual birthmark, she snaps a picture and posts it on social media. Seething, Bonnie is out for revenge; she just doesn’t foresee the consequences.

Those in authority deem her incorrigible and send her to an infamous juvenile detention center. After a few weeks in hell, she is selected to participate in a North Carolina summer reform program. There’s just one problem. This boot camp requires her to learn to sail on water. Surely, there’s a mistake, but she’ll grin and bear it until she can make her escape. She has no intention of ever going back to lockup.

Bonnie isn’t the only misfit brought to the camp. Many others are already there. As different as they seem, they have similarities. They pilfer rather than purchase. Defiance is second nature to them, especially when dealing with those in authority. Each has suffered misfortune in their young lives.

There is another commonality: they are all descendants of Mary Read, who dressed as a man and went pirating with Calico Jack and Anne Bonny. Murder eventually forces Mary to safeguard those she loves and those who will come after she dies. This passion gives rise to the Brigands of the Compass Rose, and each of the teens present will have the chance to earn their place among the other brigands who have come before – if they can survive the summer and each other.

Of course, there are those in the nearby town who are also descendants of early North Carolinians. Some are not happy with having a boot camp of juvenile delinquents nearby. One desires to use that land for his own purposes. He’s just waiting for the perfect excuse, which happens to arrive shortly after Bonnie begins training to become a brigand. Thieves are stealing treasure off luxurious yachts on the waterfront. And the only crooks in town are the teens at the sailing camp. Like sand sifting through an hourglass, the sword of Damocles threatens Bonnie and her fellow brigands-in-training. Unless they can learn to trust each other and act as a team, evil will triumph.

Runkle and Webb spin a delightful tale that grips readers from the get-go and doesn’t release them until the tale ends. Even then, there’s a promise of more adventure to come. The authors do a fabulous job of weaving pirate history and lore into the story that is seen through the eyes of a fifteen-year-old outsider who has no one in her life whom she can trust, befriend, or love. They bring the past to life and meld it with the present, spicing it with mystery, danger, and magic. An array of emotions – good and bad, happy and sad – and incidents that any reader will readily identify with make this the perfect piratical tale for old and young alike who seek a vicarious way of escaping the humdrum routine of everyday life.