The Pirate Hunter [MP3 CD - UNABRIDGED]

Rating:
Summary: Shiver me gibbetts...
Review: Not much to add to the positive reviews here, others have pretty much got it. Highly entertaining story, wonderful, rich history, well detailed. A real page turner.

What I want to stress is Richard Zacks' gift with the language. Candid, well spoken, but heads above the dry academic style you find so much in non-fiction. The man is very adept at spinning this yarn and providing the reader with a wink and a nudge without being cloying. Marvelous use of saucy speak. Here's to Zacks and to many more of his books. Aaaarghh!

Rating:
Summary: Really Good !
Review: Not only is the poignant story of Captain Kidd's life fascinating, this book yields a rich compendium of information concerning:
•The importance of piracy to the American colonies
•The incredible global nature of it
•The very common practice of legalized piracy (privateers) between warring nations of the time
•And the importance of the Caribbean Wars, their impact on Europe and the Americas.
Well written and researched, this book is a bit of an eye opener, one you will be glad you spent time with.

Rating:
Summary: I loved this story
Review: Ok, I will make this brief. This reads like and action adventure story of the high seas, but is remarkably a piece of non-fiction. I could not put this book down. I found the story to be incredibly exciting.

In summary, if you would like to read an exciting pirate story I would highly recommend this book. Not only is it exciting, but it is also historically factual.

Rating:
Summary: Humans and their evil nature in XVII/XVIII century.
Review: One cannot possibly depict these times and individuals living in New England (Boston and NY colonies) better. What a great historical book, definitely not only about seamen!
Now I know how wealth became rooted in North America, how some families became so rich and influential. Everything has started then, when "dog ate dog", low and order existed but influenced heavily by corruption, greed, bribery and machinations of settlers and officials from England and other countries.
Unfairness of human's life was terrible: "wounded began to die, mostly boys, unpaid apprentices, killed while defending the treasure of the East India Company partners".
Nobody could be trusted and nothing counted but gold and valuables. Demand for goods (including slaves) was an unimaginable driving force. Land or island could be purchased for: "large black dog, a gun and ammunition, some rum, and a few Dutch blankets".
Exploitation, stealing, conspiracy, conniving, deceit were widely spread, accepted, and tolerated (not that it is much different today).
Merchants fought governors; governors, King, trading companies and Royal Navy- pirates; privateers hunted and robbed pirates and merchants' ships; pirates were stealing from pirates; colonies fought Old England Lords and governors; Councils and confederates contended governors; religious sects battled each other; legal merchants fought illegal merchants (latter financed by powerful, well connected and rich citizens/officials; and finally countries fought wars about influence and control over the trading sea roads to India.
This is a fascinating and recommended to everybody who loves historical books tale.

Rating:
Summary: Shades of Tom Clancy and Oliver North
Review: Picture if you will a small but powerful consortium of men in the uppermost rungs of government. This consortium devises a cunning plan to not only rid the world of some very dangerous terrorists but to secretly enrich themselves at the same time. This scheme is at best shady and mostly likely illegal under international law.But the rewards could be immense and a part of the world could be safer.So a skilled man of arms, with experience in these matters, who can handle a team of anti-terrorists(who may in fact be terrorists) is called upon. The consortium calls William Kidd. Melodramatic? Maybe,but the full description of Kidd's tale is even more melodramatic. Example; Kidd was an immensely successful and wealthy ship captain who lived on Wall St. in NYC. He undertook this mission because he wanted to be rewarded as a ship captain in the English Royal Navy.Kidd was so desireous of this prize and so sure of the mission success that he signed a ruineous performance bond that would have left him a pauper if he failed. The tale thickens and thickens again. For anyone fimilar with the author Richard Zacks, you know him to be a wizard of research and a delight to read. If you have read his book 'An Underground Education' you will not be disappointed here. 'The Pirate Hunter' is not only the story of William Kidd,but what the world was like that Kidd lived in....the 'feel' of it. You will know what I mean by reading just the first several pages of the Prologue.....the identifaction of pirate Gilliam. Everyone know something about Capt. Kidd and his pirate treasure but Zacks will tell you about a pirate world meshed to smoke filled government back rooms that reads like today's headlines.

Rating:
Summary: The "Hunter" Becomes the Hunted
Review: Richard Zacks's "The Pirate Hunter" is a lively adventure tale with the kind of twists and turns that prove the old adage that truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction. Along the way, he sets the record straight and rehabilitates the reputation of Captain William Kidd, the late 17th Century privateer and gentlemen who set out to hunt pirates with noble backing and ended up branded as one. Kidd is a tragic hero of the first order. Honorable (at least, by the standards of the time), resolute and with an unshakeable faith in his own abilities, he was laid low by an incredible run of double crosses and sheer bad luck. Particularly touching were his devotion to his wife and his strong sense of duty, neither of which were ultimately enough to save him.

The book's other main character is the despicable Robert Culliford, an actual pirate who betrayed Kidd twice and whose fate was tied closely to the Captain. Culliford's villany stands in sharp contrast to Kidd, giving the story a strong counterpoint.

Along the way Zacks, who demonstrates himself to be a meticulous researcher, paints a vivid portrait of the lives of sailors and pirates during the period. Zacks's authentic descriptions of what it was like to be a real life pirate bears little resemblence to the modern literary and cinematic stereotypes. His prose is vivid and highly readable, and the book feels more like a novel than a work of history as a result. My only quibble is the Zacks occasionally gets a little TOO bogged down in the details, as evidenced by the narrative's 400 plus pages.
Nevertheless, overall "The Pirate Hunter" is an excellent read for those who enjoy nautical history tales.

Rating:
Summary: Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction
Review: The Captain Kidd who comes down to us through oral tradition bears no resemblance whatsoever to the true Captain Kidd, and as is almost always the case with the mythologies of historical persons, the truth is even more fascinating than the myth.

Richard Zacks has written a marvelous reconstruction of the rise and demise of Captain William Kidd. Zacks' depth of research and attention to detail fully immerses the reader in the period. It is the late 17th Century, the American Republic is, as yet, still two generations away. The British Empire consists only of a tentative foothold in Bombay, scurvy is still the scourge of sea travel, and ships are steered at the rudder rather than via the more familiar wheel.

Some readers may be overwhelmed by the level of detail Zacks includes, but without this detail The Pirate Hunter would have been little more than a minor work; a hobby topic. I found Zacks' style of writing to be quick and quirky, while his construction of historical events read like an adventure novel. The reader completes The Pirate Hunter with not only a deep knowledge of the life and motivations of Captain Kidd, but also a strong understanding of this period in history.


Rating:
Summary: A Compelling Account
Review: The true story of Captain Kidd? Very possibly the closest we may get. Zacks has done a compelling amount of research from the English archives to the colonial archives to some of the sites involved. He presents for comparison as much detail of the lives of two men living roughly parallel lives with the various points of divergence. It would have been hard to fill a book with the existing details of William Kidd's life without verging over into the boring realm of historical manuscript. Rather than take that path, Zacks, chose to compare and contrast William Kidd and Robert Culliford, contemporaries, whose paths crossed at several instances throughout their lives.

As a result, we have been given a lively narrative focused on the adult life of William Kidd, interspersed with the life of Robert Culliford, arch pirate. Given the research, we can forgive Zacks the suppositions and surmises he makes to flesh out the narrative. The story goes a long way toward dispelling many of the myths associated with the man, Captain Kidd.

If the book lacks in any way, it is the limited use of images, including any picture of William Kidd, although Zacks references one early on in the book. The maps used for reference are older period maps with the appropriate names, but of limited use and difficult to read. That said, this book has become a valued member of my pirate library and easily deserves the highest ranking.
P-)

Rating:
Summary: No Kidding: great bio
Review: This book is a surprising treasure that brings to life more than just the shocking life of Captain Kidd. The biography also takes an up close look at the late seventeenth century on the high seas and in the major harbor towns. Digging into the documentation, author Richard Zacks contends that Captain William Kidd was not a cutthroat killing pirate; but instead he was a family man renowned as a New York sea captain. Thus, merchants and politicians like the governor of the New York colony hired Kidd to chase down pirates like Robert Culliford to reclaim the booty they stole. THE PIRATE HUNTER: THE TRUE STORY OF CAPTAIN KIDD is a fabulous historical biography that never slows down and worth reading for as much as learning the real record as for how well Mr. Zacks tells a nonfiction adventure tale.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Puts you right in the thick of it! ARRR
Review: This book is phenomenal. Zacks does an extraordinary job of sending the reading back in time and recreating a New York City harbor swarming with pirates, trade routes thick with theives, and London full of entrepreneurs and waring social classes. I've never read a book that is so effective in recreating details and evoking feelings of an era long past. tremendous.