Pirate of Panther Bay: “A Thrilling Caribbean Ride”

An excellent review of The Pirate of Panther Bay by award-winning young adult author M.R. Street appeared recently on one of the Tallahassee Democrat’s community blogs. M.R. Street, author of The Werewolf’s Daughter and Hunter’s Moon, recommended readers find “a hammock swaying in a balmy breeze and hold on for this thrilling Caribbean ride.”

The review is quite extensive and appeared on the TWA blog. I think this is the essence of  her take on The Pirate of Panther Bay,

“Staley’s swashbuckling adventure takes place in historically accurate settings.  His research into the Caribbean region and time period (1780) encompasses the political dynamics, attention to detail of ships of war, and sailors’ superstitions.  The battles at sea are breathtakingly realistic, with cannon balls whistling by and swordfights that require both skill and psychology.  Staley deftly creates a lead character with multi-layered texture:  a scared former slave girl who at a young age has lost her first love; but who is, at the same time, a self-assured young woman with military cunning and skill.  As I read The Pirate of Panther Bay, I flinched each time Isabella was whipped in her cell in El Morro.  Why doesn’t she just give up?  She is beaten mercilessly, emotionally and physically.  But her will to survive is fueled by her mother’s prophecy.  Before Isabella was even born, the spirits told her mother what Isabella’s future would hold.  To Isabella, the prophecy is a promise that this is not how she is meant to die.”

View the Official Book Trailer here.

Buy The Pirate of Panther Bay here.

 

Author: SR Staley
SR Staley has one more than 11 literary awards for his fiction and nonfiction writing. He is on the full-time faculty of the College and Social Sciences and Public Policy at Florida State University as well as a film critic and research fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, California. His award-winning Pirate of Panther Bay series (syppublishing.com) has won awards in historical fiction, mainstream & literary fiction, young adult fiction, and reached the finals in women's fiction. His most recent book is "The Beatles and Economics: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and the Making of a Cultural Revolution" due out in April 2020 (Routledge).