Pirate Latitudes is Michael Crichton at his best: a rollicking adventure tale pulsing with relentless action, crackling atmosphere, and heart-pounding suspense.Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 18:06:01 Boxid IA40226505 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier The raid is as perilous as the bloodiest tales of island legend, and Hunter will lose more than one man before he even sets foot on foreign shores, where dense jungle and the firepower of Spanish infantry stand between him and the treasure. With backing from a powerful ally, Hunter assembles a crew of ruffians to infiltrate the enemy outpost and commandeer El Trinidad, along with its fortune in Spanish gold. Heavily fortified, the impregnable harbor is guarded by the bloodthirsty Cazalla, a favorite commander of the Spanish king himself. Word in port is that the galleon El Trinidad, fresh from New Spain, is awaiting repairs in a nearby harbor. For Captain Charles Hunter, gold in Spanish hands is gold for the taking, and the law of the land rests with those ruthless enough to make it. In this steamy climate there’s a living to be made, a living that can end swiftly by disease or by dagger. Port Royal, its capital, is a cutthroat town of taverns, grog shops, and bawdy houses. A remote colony of the English Crown, the island of Jamaica holds out against the vast supremacy of the Spanish empire. It is an extraordinary feeling to spend your whole morning living in the world of 1665, and then get into your Mercedes-Benz and have lunch at some restaurant in Beverly Hills. It is incredible to think that someone like Isaac Newton spent easily half of his working life devoted to the study of alchemy. It was a time not far removed from the Middle Ages: a society in which religious beliefs were firmly held by everyone. Oysters were a lower-class dish, cheap and readily available. And there was no virtue in hygienic habits, not even as a point of fashion. The world in which he lived was very different.įor example, in the 17th century, the mechanisms of disease were not understood at all. We tend to think that Charles II was pretty much like any of us, except that he happened to be king. There is not a “sameness’ to human nature through the centuries that most historical novels would have us believe. I think that the people of the 17th century were very different from us in their assumptions about the universe, their notions about human behavior, and their fundamental values.

I’m interested in the concept of piracy, and in the society that generated this concept. I’ve been working on this novel about 17th century Caribbean pirates for four years now, which is longer than I’ve ever worked on anything else.

Pirate latitudes a novel