THE BLOODY BLACK FLAG
Fiction
Scrape his balls with a holystone
THE BLOODY BLACK FLAG
A Spider John Mystery
By Steve Goble
237 pp. Seventh Street Books
Reviewed by Eric Petersen
Journalist turned novelist Steve Goble makes his debut with the first in a series of mysteries featuring one of the most unusual sleuths ever to grace the printed page – an 18th century pirate.
It’s October of 1722, and honorable pirate Spider John Rush is rowing off the Boston coast along with his best friend Ezra Coombs and some other men on their way to the pirate ship Plymouth Dream, where they’ve signed on to work:
As they rowed, in a rhythm they’d reached without the aid of a cadence or chantey, Spider threw many a nervous glance shoreward. He sought signs of a lantern or torch, and listened for shouts or musket fire. They were well away from the Massachusetts Bay Colony coast now, and the full moon showed nothing but its own shining trail in the expanse of ocean. In the distant north, lights from Boston looked like a small swarm of orange-and-yellow fireflies on the horizon; it would not be long now before those lights were extinguished and Boston settled down to sleep. Most of the city was in bed by now, he presumed, but brothels and taverns still plied their trades. He saw and heard nothing, however, near the secluded cove from which they’d launched, a good deal south of Boston proper.
The twenty-something-year-old Spider, who got his nickname because he used to tease his sister by eating live spiders in front of her, never intended to be a pirate. It just worked out that way, giving the illiterate young carpenter a means of bringing home some decent money to his wife Em and their son Little Johnny, whom he hasn’t seen in a very long time.
Once aboard the Plymouth Dream, Spider and Ezra are under the command of Captain William Barlow, a tough but experienced pirate who promises his men treasures beyond their wildest dreams if they follow his orders – and a swift, sure death if they don’t.
Ezra Coombs’s presence on the ship is a source of fear and consternation for some members of the crew – his mother and grandmother were both hanged for witchcraft in the notorious Salem Witch Trials, and he’s the sole survivor of more than one shipwreck. The superstitious fools believe that Ezra’s cursed and will doom them all.
Spider defends his best friend and mentor, who faced similar hateful treatment back in Boston. Then one night, Spider wakes up to find Ezra not in his hammock but dead on the deck, a drinking flask next to his body. The other men think that he must have climbed up the nearby ladder in a drunken state and accidentally fallen to his death, but Spider knows better. Ezra never drank because his father had been a drunkard, and there are two dents on the top of his head. Someone obviously bashed his skull in. Twice.
Spider John vows to avenge his friend’s murder, but with no evidence at the crime scene and a ship full of pillaging cutthroats for suspects, he fears he may never be able to prove who killed Ezra Coombs. His only ally is Hob, the adolescent ship’s boy who sees and hears all.
While biding his time and conducting a covert investigation of his friend’s murder, Spider sees action when the Plymouth Dream spots its first prey – a merchant ship called the Loon which is alone on the sea. Spider prays that the Loon’s ridiculously dressed captain, Joshua Horncastle, will do the smart thing and surrender his ship’s treasures without incident.
Unfortunately, the arrogant and foolish Horncastle orders his men to attack the pirates – a mistake that costs him dearly. In the ensuing bloody battle, the crew of the Loon is crushed and its captain and his underage wife May are captured, along with their ship. Horncastle is promptly executed and May imprisoned.
Despite the haul of treasure seized from the Loon, Captain Barlow becomes incensed when a bauble is stolen from him, an object he describes as “a brass shaft about the size of my finger, with metal bands that spin about on it. The bands are marked with symbols in black.”
He won’t say what exactly the object is, only that he was planning to sell it to a Frenchman who’s willing to pay a king’s fortune for it. Vowing revenge on the thief, Barlow threatens to “disembowel him slowly and feed him his own guts while I scrape his balls with a holystone.”
He forces the men (and their female prisoner) to strip naked and submit to a body cavity search, but fails to turn up the stolen object. Driven insane with fury, Barlow begins torturing and murdering his crew. When he shoots poor Hob, it’s Spider John who leads the mutiny, killing Barlow with a knife in the throat. The first mate Addison becomes the new captain.
He’s also after the brass bauble, and as Spider John will soon discover, the odd little object is at the heart of some major skulduggery. It could also be Spider’s key to solving his best friend’s murder, if the authorities don’t hang him first – and the Royal Navy is closing in fast. The noose Spider always feared is tightening around his neck…
Part pirate swashbuckler and part detective noir, The Bloody Black Flag is a mystery like no other. Author Steve Goble’s amazing attention to period detail, atmosphere, and dialogue makes it work. A great beginning for a mystery series! Highly recommended!
Eric Petersen is an administrator and blogmaster for the Internet Writing Workshop, an international, online writer’s group run out of Penn State University. You can reach him by e-mail at EricPetersen1970@hotmail.com
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