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CAPTAIN MARY, BUCCANEER by Jacqueline Church Simonds ISBN# 0-9679591-7-9 Trade paperback 301 pages Fans of swashbuckling female pirate fiction, take heart. Here comes "Captain Mary, Buccaneer," a first novel by Jacqueline Church Simonds, to provide a rip-roaring companion to the classic male seafaring adventure. Simonds was inspired by the few known historical facts as well as the legends of both Anne Bonny and Mary Read. But Captain Mary is a richly imagined fictional character who arrives on the page with sword upraised and cannon blazing. In command of the brigantine Fury, she prowls the waters of the West Indies in 1721, "For Gold! For Glory!" Captain of her own ship and founder of a thriving colony on a secluded Caribbean island, Mary sails into battle accompanied by her trusted first mate, pilot and occasional lover, Petronius, a dreadlocked runaway slave, and their outlaw crew of all nations, castes and colors. Mary and her men haunt the sea lanes collecting their "tax" from whatever unwary ships they defeat in battle. Capturing a French merchant brig, they release her prisoner, Dr. Alphonse Coulances, condemned as a traitor for treating enemy as well as French soldiers after a skirmish. Mary keeps the charming, cultured Coulances aboard for her own amusement, and later sends him to her colony on Cache Island. But the French fleet pursues her, making it impossible for the Fury to return home. The Fury also battles a vicious pirate rival, and runs afoul of a British naval frigate, whose blustering tyrant of a captain vows to pursue Mary to Hell. There’s plenty of shipboard action, although Simonds goes a little overboard in the gore department. But this reflects Mary’s need to show herself as ruthless as any man to command the necessary "fear and respect" among her crew. Simonds is also extremely clever at creating an historically credible psychological profile of how and why a woman turns pirate. In flashback, we see how Mary fled her father’s Carolina plantation after killing an unsavory fiance who was trying to rape her. A lot of plot is spent on Mary’s personal problems—protecting a child hidden away on an island, managing her finances through a corrupt but "respectable" island banker, and the complications caused by her unruly lovers. (Not only Coulances, but the beautiful and refined hostage, Elaina, who teaches Mary the pleasures of amour sans men). But this is exactly what makes a woman pirate so intriguing, this balancing act between feminine identity, authority and independence. Simonds also conveys the socio-political currents that shaped the pirate life. It’s the wily Petronius’ idea for Mary to captain their ship; as a "blackamoor," he has no legal rights and needs a white person he can trust to handle their profits ashore. There’s a lively description of how a utopian outlaw community of ex-pirates and enterprising entrepreneurs springs up on Cache Island. And Simonds imagines a nifty and plausible way for Mary (and by implication, Bonny and Read) to disappear from that jail cell in Spanishtown, Jamaica — and from the pages of history — without a trace. Despite her trail of impetuous and unfortunate romantic alliances, Mary’s relationship with Petronius gives the story it’s strongest hook, as they defy God, man and Fate to build themselves a better life. With its explosive finale in the eye of a "devil’s storm," "Captain Mary, Buccaneer" should satisfy everyone’s craving for two-fisted pirate adventure — male or female.
– Lisa Jensen, No Quarter Given, (May 2001) |