Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Captain Kidd:
Always keep the receipts.
Quick synopsis:
The story of how Captain William Kidd was wrongly convicted of privacy.
Fact for Non-History People:
The vast majority of pirates never buried their treasure. Except the one in this book, that is.
Fact for History Nerds:
Pirates sometimes wore eye patches to help with adjusting to the light above and below deck.
My Take on Captain Kidd:
I hope my ninth-great-grandson writes a book about me! In the meantime, we get Captain Kidd’s ninth-great-grandson, Samuel Marquis, who wants to settle a few scores with his book, Captain Kidd. And boy does he settle some scores. Down with Earl Bellomont!
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Captain Kidd (and I am absolutely astounded that anyone can be) he was a “pirate” in the late 1600s. I put pirate in quotes because there is a pretty strong case to be made that he was not the pirate he was convicted of being. I am not saying he wasn’t a pirate (and even Marquis hedges his bets), but there is definitely evidence the crimes he was hung for (spoiler?) were not actual crimes.
Marquis writes a very comprehensive story about Kidd’s life. This is not a short, action-packed narrative to make money off the pirate craze. It’s a thorough look at the known evidence and what we can glean from the facts. This story can never be told, but there is a lot to look at and arrive at the conclusion that Kidd was a political martyr. If you want more than just the well-worn highlights of pirate stories, then this book will scratch that itch.
My nitpicks are pretty minor. Marquis will shove some modern vernacular into the book at times. This wouldn’t be a problem if it was throughout and sounded like the rest of the book. Here, it is too infrequent to be considered the tone, but it is frequent enough to be distracting. For the most part, Marquis is even-handed, but he does get a bit repetitious about things he wants to highlight certain things (e.g., Kidd and his wife’s love match, Bellomont’s treachery). I think the main takeaway is that if you are a descendant of Earl Bellomont, don’t go near Samuel Marquis. He’s still pretty ticked off. Rightfully so!
(This book was provided as an advance reader copy by the publisher.)
Verdict:
Swashbuckling and betrayal. Always fun. Buy it here!
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