The Requiem Shark: A Novel

The tone is right. Forget 'Treasure Island', because here comes the real thing. Looters, pillagers, murderers and yet all oddly human and familiar. It's quite a task and Griffin achieves it by delivering the story into the hands of one of the more sympathetic of the crew. The book contains enough (very dry) humor to balance the doses of violence. The violence may at times be graphic, but never unnecessary, all adding up towards a powerful, ALMOST redemptive conclusion. True redemption, we feel, is beyond those who've chosen such a life.

The story of the last years of the last great pirate, Bart Roberts is a splendid morality tale. The book is a fictionalized tale of William Williams, the name of real member of Roberts'crew. In Griffin's novel, Williams is a well educated writer and fiddler who is taken aboard a Roberts ship after having been pressed into service aboard a slaver. Williams acts as Roberts muse and confident. Both are strong, engaging charcters surrounded by a rich cast of strong supporting players. None is more intruiging than the African, Innocent, who is himself educated.Ths pirates have numerous adventures (what else can one expect from a bucaneeers?) facing dangers both from nature and fellow man. Thse are no swashbucklers, but men who are at once treacherous and live by a code. Among the pirates are both lords and the lowest of classes. The treasures they capture are not an end but an excuse for celebration and more plunder in their glutoness pursuit of adventure.It's all fascinating stuff but it also offers insights into the motivations that are at the very soul of people. The amazing combination of good will and selfishness that lies, at least in some measure, in all of us. This is a story of men who in one instance can exhibit great compassion and in the next extreme cruelty. A great read.

This was quite a surprise for me. I avoid Pirate novels because they don't do justice to the legends. I find that this first novel by Griffin was more than I could ask for. The Island, the battle, the sex - was so vivid I was there. I could smell the pitch, hear the waves, feel the rain. What more could a writer, or reader ask for.

I was one of those, a few months ago, mourning the passing of Patrick O'Brian. A friend who had read both O'Brian's books and the Requiem Shark, bought this book for me and while the style is very different from the old master's, it is every bit as good. Griffin takes as his subject a young man, around 19, who makes one mistake (stepping aboard the wrong vessel) and then follows him closely during the next three years as his character is transformed by those about him. I know it sounds a bit like Lord Jim but Griffin is crueller than most, pushing his heroes and antiheroes through a miserable life on the seas that had me transfixed. There is also a character aboard called Innocent, who has concocted his own religion out of Greek myths and the bible that seems to emphasise the power of stories themselves. The book also ends in a series of twists that were about as bitter and enjoyable as they come.