Gina's Book #8: Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

I've always been a Michael Crichton fan. Although his books vary greatly in subject matter, he always seems to know exactly what he's talking about whether its time travel, dinsosaurs, or pirates. I usually find his books to be easy reads and to-the-point, and Pirate Latitudes didn't let me down.

The main character is a man named Captain Charles Hunter. He lives in an English colony in Jamaica in 1665.  He is a privateer, which is basically a legal pirate.  If provoked, crews can steal from Spanish ships and split the treasure with the English powers that be back in Jamaica, and not be hanged for piracy.

The plot line follows Hunter as he assembles a crew and attempts to pull off what is thought to be an impossible privateering mission. Sort of an Ocean's Eleven story but with pirates. There is a lot of adventure and little romance, as is common with Crichton's novels.

This book was a nice change from the other's I've read during this challenge.  Sometimes you just want an easy read to take your mind off things. However, it isn't a book that stuck with me after I was finished, and I doubt I will give it little thought in the future. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it.

An interesting fact about this book is that it was published after his death. One of his assistants discovered the completed manuscripts on his computer, along with an unfinished novel called Micro.