The Bloody Black Flag: A Spider John Mystery

by Steve Goble

Overview

Agatha Christie meets Patrick O'Brian in the first book in a new series of swashbuckling historical mysteries featuring Spider John Rush, a most reluctant pirate. 1722—aboard a pirate ship off the American Colonial Coast. Spider John Rush never wanted to be a pirate, but it had happened and he'd learned to survive in the world of cut and thrust, fight or die. He and his friend Ezra knew that death could come at any moment, from grapeshot or storm winds or the end of a noose. But when Ezra is murdered in cold blood by a shipmate, Spider vows revenge. On a ship where every man is a killer many times over, how can Spider find the man who killed his friend? There is no law here, so if justice is to be done, he must do it. He will have to solve the crime and exact revenge himself. One wrong step will lead to certain death, but Spider is determined to look into the dying eyes of the man who killed his friend, even if it means his own death.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633883598
Publisher:	Seventh Street Books
Publication date:	09/12/2017
Series:	Spider John Series , #1
Pages:	237
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Steve Goble is the author of The Bloody Black Flag and The Devil's Wind in the Spider John mystery series. A former journalist, Goble now works in communications for a cybersecurity firm. Previously, he wrote a weekly craft-beer column called Brewologist, which appeared on USA Today Network–Ohio websites.

Editorial Reviews

07/17/2017
Set in 1772, Goble’s shaky debut and series launch mixes a violent pirate yarn with amateur-detective snooping. To escape law officers hot on their heels, Spider John Rush and his friend Ezra reluctantly join the crew of the outlaw ship Plymouth Dream, which is anchored in a cove south of Boston. They plan to desert as soon as they’re safely away from the Massachusetts Bay Colony coast, but Ezra’s death aboard the ship disrupts that scheme. Spider John knows that someone on Plymouth Dream must have murdered his friend, and he vows to find the killer and take revenge. At this point, the story could have followed the model of the traditional country house puzzle, focusing on a small pool of suspects. Unfortunately, the pirate vessel is carrying too many eccentric, dangerous folks who could be guilty, from a tattooed religious fanatic to the homicidal captain. Spider John’s observations of shipboard life and the scurvy crew are more interesting than the feeble mystery. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

This original, gritty, action-packed debut is rich in historical detail. Suggest for readers who enjoy the Pirates of the Caribbean movies or Patrick O'Brian's seafaring adventures.”
 
 –Library Journal (starred review)

“Pirate noir? Captain Kidd meets Sam Spade? With The Bloody Black Flag, debut novelist Steve Goble boldly launches a seafaring sleuth subgenre sure to enthrall historical mystery lovers. The first Spider John Rush mystery is a strikingly original blend of pulp magazine–style nautical adventure tale and the traditional whodunit, rich in period atmosphere and dense with white-knuckle tension.”
 
—Craig McDonald, Edgar®, Anthony, and Macavity Award–nominated author of Head Games

“This book succeeds in ways that a conventional mystery novel couldn’t even approach. The dialogue is wonderful, the sense of place extraordinary. A marvelous novel.”
 
—Nicholas Guild, author of The Assyrian and The Blood Star

"A fast-paced mash-up of a rip-roaring pirate yarn mixed with a suspect-rich whodunit story. Gritty in detail, fanciful in conception, the novel is, above all else, a lot of fun.”
 
—Gordon McAlpine, author of Hammett Unwritten and the Edgar® Award–nominated Woman with a Blue Pencil 

“A page-turning, high seas adventure filled with pirates, murder, and mystery. Steve Goble’s debut novel is a thrilling, action-packed adventure featuring a piratical sleuth whose wits are as sharp as his blade.”
 
—Susan Spann, author of the Hiro Hattori novels/Shinobi mysteries

“Steve Goble’s debut novel is a rollicking tale of murder and mayhem. He tells a pirate tale like no one else has ever done before. It’s unique, original, and all told with the deft hand of an emerging master storyteller. The best thing about this novel? There will be more Spider John books. I can’t wait to go on another pirate adventure with this likeable, but dangerous, crew.”
 
—Larry D. Sweazy, award-winning author of Where I Can See You

From the Publisher

★ 08/01/2017
After a fight in a Boston tavern, Spider John Rush and his friend Ezra escape by joining the crew of a pirate ship heading to Jamaica in 1722. But someone onboard spreads the word among the superstitious shipmates that Ezra's grandmother and mother were hanged as witches in Salem. When Ezra is discovered dead, everyone claims it was a drunken accident. Spider John is the only one who suspects murder, and as the ship's carpenter, he has the opportunity to move around and listen. Spider John has no one to trust, but he's determined to stay alive long enough to find justice for his dead friend. VERDICT This original, gritty, action-packed debut is rich in historical detail. Suggest for readers who enjoy the Pirates of the Caribbean movies or Patrick O'Brian's seafaring adventures.—LH

Library Journal

2017-06-20
Avast, Watson! Journalist Goble's fiction debut sets its murder mystery aboard an 18th-century pirate ship.Narrowly escaping first the shipwreck of the Lamia and then the wrath of one of the wreck's few other survivors, carpenter Spider John Rush and his blood brother, Ezra Coombs, accept an offer they'd spurned only hours earlier, seeking to elude further dangers in Massachusetts Bay by joining the crew of the Plymouth Dream. They duly sign the ship's articles, accept the work Capt. William Barlow assigns them, and bed down in the expectation of more adventures. But Ezra's adventures are ended the next night, along with Spider John's hopes of peace, by the man who clubs Ezra to death and leaves a pewter tankard close by to suggest he got drunk and fell. Spider John, who knows that Ezra didn't drink and that an accidental fall wouldn't have left two distinct head wounds, vows to avenge him, well aware that he faces some unique challenges. Of the 70 crewmen aboard the Plymouth Dream, all are lawbreakers, most are killers, and every single one's a reasonable suspect. In addition, Ezra's unfortunate reputation as a witch's son, which followed him to his new berth and perhaps caused his death, guarantees to make anyone investigating that death deeply unpopular. Even so, Spider John, determined to get to the truth of the killing, begins to make cautious inquiries among the pirate crew—inquiries that will be interrupted by the Plymouth Dream's battle with another ship, a forced search for a mysterious brass cylinder, a mutiny, and the intermittent pursuit of the ship by one of His Majesty's frigates. The mix of pirates and detection works surprisingly well. If the guilty party is no great surprise, both the mystery and the sleuthing are neatly turned. First of a series.

Kirkus Reviews