The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd - Hardcover

Zacks, Richard

3.84

2,558 ratings by Goodreads

9780755311316: The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0755311310 ISBN 13: 9780755311316

Publisher: Headline Review, 2003

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This is a tale of swashbuckling adventure on the high seas of the 17th century. Captain William Kidd was not actually a pirate, but employed by King William III to track down pirates and requisition their treasure - the semi-legal role of the "privateer". As a counterpoint to his story, Zacks also tells the forgotten story of his great rival, Robert Culliford, an utterly ruthless buccaneer who flew a blood red flag which signified "no mercy" and whose surgeon was named Jon Death. Kidd's and Culliford's paths were to cross again and again during the course of their lives, but in a tale of double-crossing, betrayal and political scandal, the outcome was not as expected. One of these men would end up hanging on the gallows of the London dockside; the other would walk away with the treasure.

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Review:

An enthralling new biography ... Captain Kidd practically swaggers off the pages of this rich, riotous bio -- Time Magazine

Forget all those swashbuckling movies. This is real piracy: a harrowing tale of deceit, danger, greed and lust. -- ABC News

reminiscent...of Defoe, vividly illustrating the brutalities of life on a seagoing vessel and the chaos of urban society at the end of the seventeeth century -- New Yorker

About the Author:

Richard Zacks has spent three years researching the true story of Kidd, following in his footsteps and patiently sitting through the hundreds of pages of trial transcripts, letters and log books that still survive.

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