A Bottle of Rum
Steve Goble
Seventh Street
Paper $15.95
ebook $9.99

I became a fan of Steve Goble’s Spider John mysteries from the first book. The idea of a pirate solving mysteries is one of the freshest I’ve come across in a long time. The current installment in the series is no exception.

Before I get to the review, I would like to thank Samantha Lien from Seventh Street Books for providing me with a PDF review copy. I have been spending so much time staring at a screen the last couple of months that I went ahead and bought a print copy to save strain on my eyes.  It was money well spent.

This installment is less of a mystery and more of a thriller than the previous two books. That’s not a bad thing. One problem authors face with series is keeping each book different enough that he’s not repeating himself but not so different that the readers feel like they’ve been sold a bill of goods when the book is not what they expected. I don’t expect that to be a problem with this series.

The story opens with Spider John and his friend, the one-eyed pirate named Odin, smoking, drinking, and playing chess in a tavern in England. They’re trying to leave the sweet trade behind. Spider John is hoping to find passage to Nantucket and return to his beloved wife Em and the son who was a baby when he left.

Ain’t happenin’ in this book. The innkeeper is murdered with a knife Spider John had made for his friend Hob, who sailed away with Anne Bonny at the end of the previous installment. Spider chases the killer, catches him, and discovers he’s an old shipmate. The guy gets away but not before Spider John learns that Hob may be a prisoner somewhere nearby.  Further questioning of other individuals reveals he may be at a nearby farm.

Spider John and Odin go there under the pretext of seeking employment. They find a private hospital of sorts, staffed with a number of former pirates, with an old adversary of theirs in charge of the muscle and taking orders from the doctor who runs the place.  They also discover a row of fresh graves, a young woman with a morbid fascination with death and murder, barred windows, some ghastly medical procedures, and a female pirate with an agenda of her own.  (I’m looking forward to seeing more of her in future volumes. She’s an addition to the series that will keep things lively.)

There are some killings, but they are almost secondary to the main plot, which asks the questions Where Is Hob and Can Spider John Find Him In Time.  You’ll have to read the book to find out.

As always, A Bottle of Rum was a lot of fun.  Treat yourself to it.