Wonderful and informative account of the history of Captain William Kidd. Zacks has done an incredible amount of research in finding the real story of Captain Kidd and his subsequent trial for piracy. The book has just the right balance of novel style writing blended with facts and figures. It gives a good insight into the workings of the English system of law in the early 18th century, and how frightening it could be if you were on the wrong side of it. The audiobook version, narrated by Michael Prichard, is well recorded. ( )

This was a really well done book telling Captain Kidd’s actual story. I enjoyed Zack’s writing style, and he introduces each chapter well. However, while he did manage to keep the story interesting and easy to read, there were occasions where it was harder to focus due to a few lengthy descriptions. I did enjoy this book, though, and I do recommend it. ( )

The Pirate Hunter, by Richard Zacks, completely turned around any notion I had about the notorious Captain Kidd. Zacks research shows that Captain Kidd's reputation as a villain and terror on the high seas was undeserved. Rather, it appears that Kidd was maligned by others for a variety of reasons, which ultimately led to his capture, trial, execution, and his historical reputation as a pirate.

Zacks narrative gives the reader an appreciation of what life in Britain and the Colonies was like at the end of the 17th Century, and what a sailors life was like in those times. Also interesting was how others in that era, including rogue pirates such as Robert Culliford, were pardoned for their crimes, while Kidd, apparently innocent of acts of piracy, ended up being condemned.

The book may have been a little longer than necessary, and some of the detail added didn't justify inclusion in terms of painting the picture of Kidd's life. But in fairness to the author, I'm sure that if I had spent as much time as he must have done in digging up all the historical facts from these times, I wouldn't have wanted them to go unrecorded either. ( )

Arrrgh! ( )

Reviews on this book seem a bit mixed, which puzzles me a bit. I found it to be a wonderful read, bringing to life characters such as Captain Kidd and Captain Culliford. I had known little about Kidd before reading this except that he was purportedly one of the most notable pirates of the 17th century. The truth is far from this, his mistake not becoming a pirate, but trusting powerful, greedy people when his luck was down and they would be liable to face scandal. Along the way I learned a bit about what the pirate life was really like (not as romantic as the movies, which was no surprise really) and the English justice system, which makes me glad to have what we have today. As many faults as our system has, it is a vast improvement over what Kidd faced. The real irony was that Kidd, who refused to turn pirate was hanged for being a pirate, while a number of members of his crew who did turn pirate received pardons. ( )