Pirate Queen: The Curse

R. Allen Downey
BookSurge Publishing (2008)
ISBN 9781419690860
Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (10/08)

 

Real life female pirate, Lai Choi San was both a feared and respected leader.  She inherited a fleet of twelve junks from her father after he and her brother were murdered.  Lai Choi ruled Macao and the South China Sea from the 1920s until she mysteriously disappeared in 1939.  Keeping in mind this historical information, “Pirate Queen: The Curse” picks up the story after she supposedly reappears over ten years later.  The author R. Allen Downey answers the question about what might have happened to the feared pirate queen.  However, since this book is a fictional account, he also adds touches of magic and the paranormal.  I personally believe that his account is probably much more interesting than the real one.

When a Chinese Nationalist Yacht is hijacked and the diplomats on board suffer horrible deaths, British Intelligence gets involved.  Actually, they aren’t really concerned about the violent murders; they are more interested in a microfilm that was also stolen during the hijacking, along with $6,000,000 worth of gold.  The microfilm is specially encoded so that it cannot be easily read. Many countries are interested in the information that it contains.  Lai Choi San leaves a calling card on the bodies that let everyone know that she is involved. She wants to sell the microfilm to the highest bidder.
           
The MI6 send two of their best agents to find the microfilm.  Former American Rick and Chinese descent Ricki are also engaged and both conveniently have paranormal powers.  Rick and Ricki decide to run a very complex con so that they can get to the microfilm.  They enlist some of their other equally-gifted friends in this game.  Using both their paranormal skills and their sleuthing skills, they discover what is on the film.  Along the way, all of their lives are threatened, some of them are tortured and they have to deal with an ancient curse.
           
I totally enjoyed this novel.  If you enjoy James Bond style tales, you will love this one.  Actually, it made me think that this is what Bond would be like if he had a steady girlfriend, supernatural gifts and had to deal with witches, ghosts and ghouls.  So to me it was even better!  Downey did a great job of capturing my interest from the start.  He really knows how to develop some evil, yet entertaining, characters.  I also found myself interested in the real story of Lai Choi San, who is someone that I had never heard of until I read this book.  Researching her information gave me a greater appreciation of the amount of work that was put into writing “Pirate Queen: The Curse.”  I highly, highly recommend this novel.

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