From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In this heart-stopping account of his work recovering stolen (or otherwise illegally-seized) ships from "hellhole" ports, commercial captain Hardberger proves himself tough as a tank and articulate as a poet. An airplane pilot, teacher, and lawyer besides, Hardberger never turns down an assignment, no matter how perilous-from surreptitiously repossessing huge ships at midnight to transporting a fleet of old airplanes across East Germany in a perilous airborne convoy. Facing down foes that include gangsters, corrupt judges, and, of course, pirates, Hardberger proves a formidable hero, but nevertheless admits that "my long experience in leading men into dicey situations had taught me to keep my qualms to myself." Hardberger has a seafarer's gift for atmospheric storytelling, layering details to create a sense of place, history, and foreboding, as when outsmarting deceptive authorities at a Honduran port: "I knew that pier well, and those pilings had been rotten since Simon Bolivar was a boy." Full of the suspense that comes from ripping off the bad guys and making a daring escape, often aboard less-than-reliable craft ("the ship could only make a desperate run for Belize... before the hold filled with water and she took a nosedive into the sea") Hardberger's escapades make undeniably fun reading.
From Booklist
Hardberger has taught school, played rock, flown airplanes as crop duster and flight instructor, and practiced law. His major qualification is as a Licensed Master Mariner (All Tonnage, All Oceans), and his major profession is fighting pirates. Not the kind with motor boats and assault rifles, though he has had to work around both at the risk of his life, but rather the kind who rely on bribes to Third World governments, shadow corporations, shipyards that resemble chop shops, and various other devices far more subtle but quite as effective for illegally seizing ships as anything Somali goons have devised. There is material for half a dozen thrillers in HardbergerοΏ½s life, in which he has suffered divorce, bereavement, and penury but fought a very specialized form of good fight with more successes than failures. Irresistible and informative. --Roland Green