A Sunday afternoon treasure hunt

Book: Pirate

Authors: Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell

Reviewed by: Samantha Keogh

Review made possible by: Penguin Random House South Africa

The official story is that the treasure was mislaid while being transported to a safe hiding place.

But descendants of those responsible for hiding it doubt family rumours that it was mislaid.

Rather, they believe it was stolen by pirates and buried on an island in …

Well, the problem is nobody knows.

Sam is a collector of first editions.

Remi visits a specialist bookstore to buy him a surprise addition to his collection.

When the elderly proprietor of the shop ends up dead, it emerges that the book she is after (and which has been sold to her for a pittance as a mere copy of the original) may hold the key to a secret map of where the fortune is hidden.

The super-rich Fargos use their private jet to chase clues from America to Brazil to the Caribbean to London and, when the fabled relationship between King John and Robin Hood rises to the surface, to Nottingham.

Helping them is their California-based investigation staff and a couple of experts in medieval history and the vagaries of Old and Middle English.

Hard on their heels is a vicious corporate raider whose antecedents are believed to have stolen the treasure and, in turn, had it stolen from them.

He is aided by a gang with itchy trigger fingers and one of his apparent victims who, in truth, is firmly nestled in the Fargos’ team.

The underlying history seems sound, the suppositions and conclusions flowing from the history are credible.

The characters are all where they need to be when they need to be there.

Somehow, though, the tale lacks real drama and the Fargos are blessed with a great deal of luck which sometimes makes finding solutions to their problems seem a little too easy.

Pirate is a non-demanding, gentle Sunday afternoon treasure hunt yarn a la Laura Croft or Indiana Jones. It is worth a read.