The Wreck of Misericordia (Love Spell)

Rating:
Summary: Not my cup of tea
Review: Four hundred years ago, Misericordia, a Spanish galleon loaded with treasure valued on today's market at a quarter of a billion dollars, sank in international waters off the coast of the Carolinas. Traditional salvage has not been able to touch the wreck, but now, thanks to a new underwater technology, the incredible treasure of Misericordia is within reach. A Cuban-American group is funding the salvage efforts. The Cuban government, fearing that the treasure will be used to fund dissidents in their own country, wants to stop the mission, and wants very much to claim the treasure for itself.

Let me be quite honest, I slogged through about half of this book and gave up. It never managed to transcend the problems I find common to many books in this genre. It's plot-heavy and character-light, and frankly, if a book doesn't offer me strong, compelling characters, and if it doesn't shed some light on character relationships, I find that I'm not at all inclined to start reading much less finish. I found the plot fairly pedestrian by comparison to the work of the few action-type novelists I have enjoyed in the past. Schaill isn't the audacious plotter Clive Cussler is, and he doesn't provide the sharp, tense, intelligent plots that are Robert Ludlum's specialty.

Rating:
Summary: Not my cup of tea
Review: Four hundred years ago, Misericordia, a Spanish galleon loaded with treasure valued on today's market at a quarter of a billion dollars, sank in international waters off the coast of the Carolinas. Traditional salvage has not been able to touch the wreck, but now, thanks to a new underwater technology, the incredible treasure of Misericordia is within reach. A Cuban-American group is funding the salvage efforts. The Cuban government, fearing that the treasure will be used to fund dissidents in their own country, wants to stop the mission, and wants very much to claim the treasure for itself.

Let me be quite honest, I slogged through about half of this book and gave up. It never managed to transcend the problems I find common to many books in this genre. It's plot-heavy and character-light, and frankly, if a book doesn't offer me strong, compelling characters, and if it doesn't shed some light on character relationships, I find that I'm not at all inclined to start reading much less finish. I found the plot fairly pedestrian by comparison to the work of the few action-type novelists I have enjoyed in the past. Schaill isn't the audacious plotter Clive Cussler is, and he doesn't provide the sharp, tense, intelligent plots that are Robert Ludlum's specialty.

Rating:
Summary: An Absolutely Amazing and Believable Underwater Adventure
Review: William S. Schaill's THE WRECK OF MISERICORDIA is amazingly well written and rivals the works of other great adventure/thriller writers such as Clive Cussler, Dean Koontz and Tom Clancy to name a few.

Mr. Schaill's writing style is incredibly smooth and natural. The depth of his characters and his seemingly effortless ability to describe details made it possible for me to immerse myself and actually visualize the action and thrill of being on a treasure hunt in the open sea.

Don't be fooled by the absence of other reviews. This book is very entertaining and deserves more attention. Although this book has just recently been released, the marketing guru's at Leisure Books had better wake-up. They have a winner on their hands and they haven't even taken the time to write a simple synopsis For Amazon's customers.

In their absence, let me re-write the book's description from the back cover:

A SUNKEN TREASURE Deep in international waters off the coast of South Carolina lies a four-hundred-year-old Spanish galleon, laden with artifacts and treasure valued at a quarter of a billion dollars. For centuries it has remained tantalizingly unattainable. Until now. Finally, with the aid of the high-tech Mohab One System, its riches are within reach.

A HIDDEN AGENDA A wealthy Cuban-American syndicate has turned to salvage expert Al Madeira to direct their operation and reclaim the ship in the name of history. But Madeira soon learns that nothing is what it seems. The Cuban government, fearing the syndicate intends to use the treasure to fund Cuban dissidents, will stop at nothing to halt the salvage mission-and to get the treasure for themselves.~

Reviews proclaim Mr. Schaill's other works as "Heart pounding, Bloody exciting and Amazingly realistic!" Clive Cussler wrote, "A great read of underwater adventure. Let's hope we see more of William S. Schaill." I couldn't agree more!