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Rating: 
Summary: Historical nautical fiction at its best!
Review: Could it be that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote TREASURE ISLAND based on a true story, and the characters really existed? Is it true that an aging pirate, Long John Silver, manipulated John Paul Jones and other patriots of the American Revolution into recovering treasure from a small island in the Caribbean? These are but a few of the questions I was asking myself after I finished reading Commander Roger Johnson's well crafted adventure novel, DEAD MAN'S CHEST. As a writer, I know how tough it is to spin a yarn of factual fiction, and do it in a way that makes every page believable. Mr. Johnston has done it in spades - and everything rings true - from the sailing lore to the historical backdrop. It is a saga bigger than life and destined to be made into a major motion picture. Move over C. S. Forester, Patrick O'Brian and Dan Parkinson - there is a new author on the scene writing in the same tradition. We can only hope Commander Johnson will continue to tell us more about the characters he has so skillfully brought back to life in this truly entertaining novel. If you enjoy factual fiction with a nautical theme, you will not be able to put this one down.
Rating:
Summary: I truly couldn't put it down!!
Review: I just finished reading Dead Man's Chest by Commander Roger Johnson and was thrilled with each page. I'm not much of a fiction reader, but once I read the two page preface, I was hooked. Commander Johnson has put together a marvelous story of adventure, mixed with love, intrigue, and how Long John Silver manipulated hundreds of pirates and Colonial patriots into doing his bidding to find and take back the treasure of Dead Man's Chest. I was especially taken with the 1777 transcript of the Royal Navy Admiralty Court of Inquiry that formed the foundation of this amazing epic adventure. I recommend Dead Man's Chest to everyone who likes a great yarn, and truly hope this important literary work makes it to the big screen.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful storyline
Review: I just finished reading DEAD MAN'S CHEST, and I can honestly say it is one of the best two or three books I have ever read. It is the remarkable story of how one man, Long John Silver, was able to manipulate both pirates and patriots in order to aquire the Treasure of Dead Man's Chest; the other two-thirds of the treasure John Flint burried on Treasure Island. The action takes place between November 1773 and June 1775, the same twenty months in which the naval hero John Paul Jones disappeared from the history books. He was a foreigner and had a warrant on his head, yet he did something so remarkable for the American Colonies that he was awarded one of the first naval commissions in the Continental Navy. DEAD MAN'S CHEST reveals for the first time exactly what he did, woven together with other historical events and with just enough fiction to give this amazing novel a hook to keep my undivided interest. I give DEAD MAN'S CHEST five stars!
Rating: 
Summary: Two books by the same title
Review: If you are looking for this book at a used bookstore or the library, be aware there is a second book by the same title (author is Rankin, I think) which is a chronicle of the travels of Robert Louis Stevenson, not a sequel to Treasure Island. Don't know if this will happen to anyone else, but I checked out the wrong one. Be sure you know which one you're getting!
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