This was a fantastic book, as a mystery, as a pirate adventure, as historical fiction, as however you want to pigeon-hole it.
The second novel in the Spider John series by Steve Goble has the intrepid reluctant pirate, Spider John Rush, and his friends, Hob the teenager, Odin the one-eyed old salt, and Admiral Thomas the cat, somehow escaping the hangman's noose in Port Royal, Jamaica, unlike some of his former shipmates from the first novel. The group hides its piratical past as part of the crew of a merchant vessel heading north for Boston, leading Spider John to hope for his long-sought reunion with his wife Em and son Johnny. This vessel carries cargo and passengers, some of whom are not who they pretend to be. When the captain of the ship dies in his stateroom seemingly of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Spider is drawn into another murder investigation that threatens to interrupt his reunion with Em. The resulting story is full of tense investigations, potential suspects literally coming out of the woodwork, and, of course, great pirate action.
Where the first novel fell one star short of my highest recommendation, this novel does not. The first novel put the pirate action above the mystery that needed to be solved, but this second novel puts the piracy and the investigation on equal footing to great effect. Spider John is both a human, fallible character, and one who is shown to be incredibly resourceful and able to inspire his cohorts to follow his lead. Hob and Odin get some more fully-fleshed character building in this story, and other characters present both real-life historical figures and possible potential recurring characters for later entries. As was the first novel, the second in the series is well-written and -edited, to the point where I have no complaints of narrative style, grammar, or even typesetting mistakes.
This book gets my highest recommendation for fans of mysteries, historical fiction, adventure tales, or just simply a fun read. It's got humor, heart, humility, and heart-pounding action. I can't wait for the third book in this series.
Thanks to Seventh Street Books for providing me with a copy of this book.