Dead ancestors should stay dead.
After rescuing a homeless teenager from a knife-wielding lunatic, and uncovering the secret of Mary, the spirit of a thief, trapped in St. Augustine's Old Jail for one hundred years, sixteen-year-old Jack Rackham puts to sea with his friends in search of another lost treasure, this time, aboard the magnificent schooner, Reckless Endeavor.
The voyage will take them through the treacherous waters of the Bermuda Triangle to the islands of the Bahamas and, eventually, Fishtail Cay, where the infamous cutthroats Calico Jack and Anne Bonny, with the help of the Rat Eaters, had buried a fortune in Aztec gold three centuries earlier. Hidden among the ingots and artifacts is the Serpent Dagger, an ancient relic embedded with the Wind Jewel of King Quetzalcoatl, which holds mystic powers for one brave enough to learn its secrets and defeat the tragedies of the past.
Calico Jack, hanged for piracy in 1720, crashes through the barriers of death and time to join his young descendant in the quest to claim the Aztec gold. His schemes prove diabolical and deadly and the painful brand of his curse will leave an indelible mark on one of them forever.
From Author Mark LaFlamme
David Ebright knows sailing. He knows the value of young friendships and he knows adventure.
In Reckless Endeavor all three are vital to the lives of Jack Rackham and his circle of friends. The adventure in particular is not slow to come. As he did with Bad Latitude, the first in the Jack Rackham line, Ebright gets right to it. He doesn't mess around with intricate knots or long looks at the weather forecast, he sails his readers right into the eye of the storm.
It starts with some history, a pair of pirates brutalized in wretched prisons hundreds of years back. In short order, that history will collide with modern day where Jack Rackham is just beginning a new adventure.
After rescuing a homeless teenager from a knife-weidling lunatic and uncovering the secret of Mary, the spirit of a thief trapped in St. Augustine's Old Jail for one hundred years, Jack Rackham puts to sea with his friends in search of another lost treasture, this time aboard the magnificent schooner, Reckless Endeavor.
As a reader, I made the same mistake I made when I began Bad Latitude - I assumed it was a book written largely for young people and that it would be short on grown-up chills. Again, I was wrong. The Hardy Boys, I'm afraid, would not last a night with Jack Rackham and his friends. In addition to high seas spooks - like freak whirlpools and long-dead pirates rising from the mist - there are adult themes all over the place. Homelessness, loyalty, betrayal, love and greed are among them. Ebright weaves them into his story without steering away from the action, and the result is a high-seas page turner.
Ebright spins an impressive piece of fiction, but there is also a good bit of history to be found here. One of its main characters, after all, is Calico Jack, an English pirate who designed the Jolly Roger flag and who made a career out of plundering across the Bahamas in the early 18th century. In Reckless Endeavor, Ebright brings Calico Jack back to life and introduces him to young Jack Rackham, who bears a suspicious resemblance to the legendary pirate. The meeting might leave Jack Rackham and his friends fabulously wealthy or it could turn them into so much chum for the sharks. There's only one way to find out, bilge rats. Batten down the hatches, beat to quarters and take some Dramamine if you have to. Reckless Endeavor is one wild ride.
