Pirate latitudes is a book by Michael Crichton published posthumously after his untimely death, Crichton is best known for Jurassic Park and Congo but was a truly outstanding author who stretched real science as far as possible to engineer brilliant stories around. Sadly this last novel is one of his worst and this reader did wonder if it was one that Crichton himself would have hugely altered or even published at all.

The book is set in the middle of the 17th century and is a book about pirates in and around the Caribbean, (Pirates of the Caribbean, anyone?), anyway in this novel we have a privateering raid by a Captain Hunter to try and snatch a gold laden Spanish galleon. The story begins in the real settlement of Port Royal and is cracks along at a rapid pace, this book has everything a decent nautical romp should have plenty of sea-battles, attacking Spanish Islands, captured English heiresses, hurricanes, political intrigue and even an attack by a giant squid. A lot happens but nothing really sticks, the characters are as wooden as the ship and the linking of the events so tenuous that this reader almost stopped halfway through. After extensive sea battles, fights with Spaniards and desperate riding out of a hurricane of course the final act is of treachery all the way back at home. Captain Hunter then goes all Death wish and takes his revenge on those traitorous dogs.

Michael Crichton is in my list of best late 20th century writers; he managed to engage the reader in the weird world of pseudo-science better than anyone else. He had believable characters that interacted with the world in credible ways, so when encountering a genetically engineered dinosaur Professor Grant just confirms that birds are derived from them, brilliant. However, this is one of his worse novels; Crichton touches brilliance in some of his early works such as Jurassic Park or the Andromeda strain but also fails occasionally such as Timeline. This is a failure and such a huge travesty of a novel that this reader wished that the book had never been released, a one-dimensional book too similar to a huge series of Hollywood films which just feels like a helter-skelter of scenes not letting the story develop. At the end of the book I had no more insight into any of the characters backgrounds, their beliefs or even their reasons for the actions, there is a lot of random killing and the author does seem to desire to shock the reader with the wanton cruelty.

I do wonder if this novel is a bit of a draft version of a novel which Crichton was going to change as he wrote it or was almost finished and other hands speeded up the narration of the tale for a swift publication, who can tell? Rather like Eyes Wide Shut is a travesty as Kubricks last film this book is a dreadful end novel to a brilliant writer's career. If you enjoy ripping yarns, stories about pirates or simply a book with a series of high speed action encounters then you'll enjoy it, if you want more then this isn't for you.