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(More customer reviews)Wiki Coffin is a versatile crewmember of one of the ships belonging to an American scientific expedition that set sail from Norfolk, Virginia. The little fleet that had the Pacific as its goal, moved down along the eastern coast of South America first (no Panama Canal yet). DEADLY SHOALS, the fourth "seafaring mystery" in Joan Druett's Wiki Coffin series, traces the course actually sailed by the U.S. Exploring Expedition ("Ex Ex" for short), 1838-1842, commanded by Naval Lt. Charles Wilkes. However, Wilkes' real fleet sailed with six ships. Druett adds a seventh, the fictional Swallow, a brig on which Wiki (also fictional) is normally berthed.
The real six-ship expedition left Virginia with 346 men, and before it ended 28 men died and two ships were lost. There were numerous legal travails including courts martial and the death of one sailor in the Fiji islands that lead to massive reprisal against the natives. Lt. Wilkes became an increasingly overbearing, petty, arrogant tyrant, making the lives of the ships' crews a torment. Druett has chosen her source material wisely; she can mine tons more from documented history for future volumes.
In the opening chapter of DEADLY SHOALS, Swallow lies off the coast of Patagonia, "with the shoal-ridden estuary of the Rio Negro on the western horizon," temporarily detached from the rest of the expeditionary squadron. Abruptly a strange ship, New England whaler Trojan, comes alongside her and in short order Wiki, whose many talents include speaking a number of languages and being a deputized lawman, is ordered to accompany Captain Stackpole, master of said whaleship, to the mainland to find and apprehend a thief. In the course of his investigations, Wiki undertakes a journey upriver to massive salt dunes, rides poncho-clad with gauchos, and gets caught in a refugee stream panicking over a French invasion. He also discovers two dead (murdered!) men, and a lot of questions, but no filched thousand dollars and schooner. A very interconnected and deceptive plot builds from there....
DEADLY SHOALS offers, an unusual character as the "detective/hero." Talented, nimble William "Wiki" Coffin is an illegitimate half-Maori son of an American sea captain -- a father into whom Wiki runs quite a bit during this voyage. Readers pick up tidbits about Maori culture and language from New Zealander Druett.
The sections of DEADLY SHOALS set at sea outshine those on land. At times, the plot slogs along while Wiki treks about with Stackpole. Publishers Weekly said about an earlier book in this series that Druett succumbed to pedantry on occasion. The same might be said of DEADLY SHOALS. The plot, it might also be said, is so tightly and cleverly plotted that it tests believability. But by and large, the author succeeds in telling a story that winningly entertains, sustains suspense, and goads curiosity about the real expedition. I'm looking forward to the next Wiki Coffin entry.
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