Rating: 
Summary: Simply Thrilling NonFiction
Review: I know a book is great when I get so involved, I miss my subway stop. Pirate Hunter had me from page one. It's right up there with "Into Thin Air" and "A Perfect Storm."I had assumed Captain Kidd was the bloodthirsty pirate we all heard about. Richard Zacks, using the skills of a master story teller, paints a different picture. I don't want to give anything away, because the book surprises you CONSTANTLY. It's simply a great read.
Rating:
Summary: No Kidding: great bio
Review: This book is a surprising treasure that brings to life more than just the shocking life of Captain Kidd. The biography also takes an up close look at the late seventeenth century on the high seas and in the major harbor towns. Digging into the documentation, author Richard Zacks contends that Captain William Kidd was not a cutthroat killing pirate; but instead he was a family man renowned as a New York sea captain. Thus, merchants and politicians like the governor of the New York colony hired Kidd to chase down pirates like Robert Culliford to reclaim the booty they stole. THE PIRATE HUNTER: THE TRUE STORY OF CAPTAIN KIDD is a fabulous historical biography that never slows down and worth reading for as much as learning the real record as for how well Mr. Zacks tells a nonfiction adventure tale. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Too Much
Review: This is a tremendously researched book. Mr. Zachs obviously pored over thousands of pages of material - unfortunately, he had a difficcult time culling what was not relevant enough to add to the book. He simply included too much material. This is the story of Captain Kidd - pirate or not? Mr. Zachs is persuasive that Kidd was not a pirate but a privateer with a commission from the King's highest confidantes. Mr. Zachs tracks Kidd on his privateering journey along with that of a pirate living a parallel career named Culliver. The juxtaposition of the two is well done. Kidd - honorable to a fault, and to a noose - fights becoming a pirate. Culliver, on the other hand, lives the pirate's life throughout, avoids the noose and walks off with a fortune in ill-gained booty. Th problem I had with this book is that Mr. Zachs included sooo many details that the forest was often lost for the trees. There were constant recitations of cargo statistics and individual's shares of booty. These were detailed to the last bale of cloth and last piece of eight. He carried these detailed recitations to journeys of other ships only very tangentially related to the theme. I wish Mr. Zach's had left out a few hundred statistics relating to cargo and focused more on the broad picture. He gave short shrift to how the backers of the mission avoided the scandal of being associated to Kidd and how England had been turned against the man. If you want a well-detailed and well-researched tome about piracy and Kidd this is the book for you. If you want a clear picture of the forces driving Kidd and his eventual demise, you have to work too hard with this book to get it. I would only recommend this book to those who are deeply into piracy and its history.
Rating: 
Summary: More about politics, less about piracy...
Review: I read this book several months ago, and I liked this book very much not only because this book contained a lot of interesting anecdotes of sailors and pirates, but also because it helped me to understand British politics in late 17 century. For example, stories about man-eaters in Andaman Islands and tailed people in Nicobar Islands were fascinating enough, though I am still not sure whether there were really tailed people in Nicobar Islands in the 17th century.
But the focus of this book is on the British politics of the times. Captain Kidd was not a pirate, but a pirate hunter or a privateer. And he was a decent man according to the standard of the times. The King of England was one of his sponsors. He was actually doing King's business. But he became a pirate quite mysteriously. His biggest mistake was that he endangered the interest of British East India Company by seizing a merchant ship of a prince of Mogul Empire. The ship was carrying a French pass, and France was at war with England. Seizing the ship was, therefore, a perfectly legal operation according to the law of the times. But the Emperor of India thought that British East India Company should be responsible for it. And the company had to compensate for it thereby setting a bad precedent.
Captain Kidd was from Scotland, but he wanted to become an admiral of British Empire. Blinded by his ambition, he could not understand the political current of the times. So his entire life was ruined. Compassion for this unfortunate man!
Rating:
Summary: Great Subject - Okay Writing
Review: This is a fascinating subject - what's the real story of Captain Kidd? I was so excited to get this book - and disappointed in the writing style. Mr. Zacks writing is factual, but unfortunately he jumps around and is not engaging to the reader. Read it if you must find all the details -- but for the overall story -- Stick with "Under the Black Flag", "The Pyrates" by Daniel Dafoe and "The Pirates own book".
Rating:
Summary: Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction
Review: The Captain Kidd who comes down to us through oral tradition bears no resemblance whatsoever to the true Captain Kidd, and as is almost always the case with the mythologies of historical persons, the truth is even more fascinating than the myth.
Richard Zacks has written a marvelous reconstruction of the rise and demise of Captain William Kidd. Zacks' depth of research and attention to detail fully immerses the reader in the period. It is the late 17th Century, the American Republic is, as yet, still two generations away. The British Empire consists only of a tentative foothold in Bombay, scurvy is still the scourge of sea travel, and ships are steered at the rudder rather than via the more familiar wheel.
Some readers may be overwhelmed by the level of detail Zacks includes, but without this detail The Pirate Hunter would have been little more than a minor work; a hobby topic. I found Zacks' style of writing to be quick and quirky, while his construction of historical events read like an adventure novel. The reader completes The Pirate Hunter with not only a deep knowledge of the life and motivations of Captain Kidd, but also a strong understanding of this period in history.
Rating:
Summary: Too Much
Review: This is a tremendously researched book. Mr. Zachs obviously pored over thousands of pages of material - unfortunately, he had a difficcult time culling what was not relevant enough to add to the book. He simply included too much material. This is the story of Captain Kidd - pirate or not? Mr. Zachs is persuasive that Kidd was not a pirate but a privateer with a commission from the King's highest confidantes. Mr. Zachs tracks Kidd on his privateering journey along with that of a pirate living a parallel career named Culliver. The juxtaposition of the two is well done. Kidd - honorable to a fault, and to a noose - fights becoming a pirate. Culliver, on the other hand, lives the pirate's life throughout, avoids the noose and walks off with a fortune in ill-gained booty. Th problem I had with this book is that Mr. Zachs included sooo many details that the forest was often lost for the trees. There were constant recitations of cargo statistics and individual's shares of booty. These were detailed to the last bale of cloth and last piece of eight. He carried these detailed recitations to journeys of other ships only very tangentially related to the theme. I wish Mr. Zach's had left out a few hundred statistics relating to cargo and focused more on the broad picture. He gave short shrift to how the backers of the mission avoided the scandal of being associated to Kidd and how England had been turned against the man. If you want a well-detailed and well-researched tome about piracy and Kidd this is the book for you. If you want a clear picture of the forces driving Kidd and his eventual demise, you have to work too hard with this book to get it. I would only recommend this book to those who are deeply into piracy and its history.
Rating:
Summary: Puts you right in the thick of it! ARRR
Review: This is a great summer book. Fun to read and good subject. Lots of information that somehow was left out of our history class in school. If you ever played pirates as a kid, or enjoy history, you will like this book. Well done.
Rating:
Summary: A triumph of historical research and evocative writing
Review: Author Richard Zacks in this book alone has proven to be a grand master of research. Much of the success of "Pirate Hunter' rests on unimaginable hours of pouring over documents, diaries, letters, old books and anything else he could get his hands on pertaining to Captain Kidd, Robert Culliford, pirates in general and the late 17th century in particular.
Consequently Zachs can tell this amazing story with next to no speculation and virtually no gaps. It's evident that any sources available to help tell the story were found. Ahh yes, the story...
All this research would have been for naught but for Zachs superior storytelling skills. And what a story he has to tell!
Pirates (I was surprised how many of the Hollywood stereotypes DID apply to them) their ruthless, murderous greedy adventures, those who hunted them for country and/or profiteers make for fascinating tales.
It's all here, months to years at a time at sea with disease a constant threat, bloody battles, torture, colorful characters and variously innocent, wily and lascivious natives.
There are also well-drawn settings, from Colonial New York to islands of Madagascar with numerous unforgettable stops in between.
At the centerpiece is Captain Kidd. Zachs' sympathetic portrayal depicts Kidd as more a pirate hunter than the pirate he was convicted of being and is remembered as.
Here is Kidd the charismatic leader, the shrewd businessman, the brutal captain, the faithful husband, the martyr to his own vanity.
Also meet Robert Culliford who beyond a doubt was a vicious pirate, the man whose paths crossed Kidd's at key point in both men's live and who met an altogether different fate.
The "Pirate Hunter" is simply one of the very best books of its kind ever written.
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