‘You, boy, commands the Captain, seeing me listening. ‘You can handle an oar tonight. We’ll get you toughened up even if we have to kill you doing so, eh men?’
The men laugh, happy at the thought of me getting killed, I suspect. I nod slowly, embarrassed and unsure. Is this how the new ship’s boy is to meet his fate? Ambushed on a deserted Malayan beach by a regiment of government troops or skinned alive and sold for a satchel?
Red is quite happy with his life in Broome, where his mother runs a hotel. Red spends his days reading, or avoiding errands. So he isn’t impressed when his ma sells him to be ship’s boy to an infamous smuggler. Suddenly, instead of avoiding chores, he’s avoiding pirates, headhunters and drowning, as travels the world with the infamous Black Bowen.
The Smuggler’s Curse is a rollicking tale of shipboard life. Set in the 19th century in Western Australia and Southern Asia, there is action aplenty, and Jorgensen doesn’t hold back. While there’s humour, there are also scenes of fear and violence as befits the setting, and which young adventure lovers will relish.
Adult readers will recognise the nod to novels such as Treasure Island.
A gripping read.
The Smuggler’s Curse, by Norman Jorgensen
Fremantle Press, 2016
ISBN 9781925164190
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