Brief review of Pirate Code

Book review of Historical Fantasy Pirate Code by Helen Hollick

Cover from Pirate Code

We first met Jesamiah Acorne in the superb first novel in this series – Sea Witch (Sea Witch Series). Jesamiah just wants to marry Tiola and live out his years on his beloved ship but fate has other things in store. To begin with Tiola’s husband will only divorce her if Jesamiah goes to Hispianola and finds some barrels of precious Indigo. War with Spain looms and it turns out that the Governor of Nassau wants Jesamaiah to go to Hispaniola anyway to find a missing spy.

Jesamiah is thrust into the middle of not just a war between Spain and England but also both the mission to discover who is a spy (who can be trusted and who not) and a rebellion against the governor of Hispaniola.

Jesamiah needs all his luck and guile as well as courage to get out all this alive. Along the way we find out a little more about his past. The end is dramatic, exciting and just very well written.

For me this is better than the first book and I recommend it for anyone who loves a good pirate romp.

Why would you not like it? Well if you don’t like Historical Fiction or don’t like elements of fantasy in your fiction then this might not be for you but the level of authenticity in recreation of period which reflects the depth of historical research by the author is so impressive I would urge you to give it a go.

I gave it 5 stars.