SULU SEA

A disgraced sailor is asked to rescue a woman from the sordid world of drug trafficking, a potential opportunity for moral redemption in this tale of nautical adventure.

Juaquin O’Hara is the captain of the Galway Bay and makes his living running illicit errands for a shady clientele delivering contraband of all kinds but drawing a line at conveying narcotics. After a distinguished naval career, he became the captain of the luxury cruise liner Sulu Sea but drunkenly steered the vessel into a reef, a catastrophe that cost 28 lives. He never quite absolved himself of the crushing guilt that resulted, and now he lives a life of resigned ignominy, always chasing the “blessed stillness and the numbness of mind that conquers memory.” He’s hired by the beautiful Gabriella Quintero Torres to transport some of her valuable possessions from Colombia to Miami in advance of her move there, but the captain quickly learns the mission is a lie; she really wants to escape her husband, Juan, who launders money for a Cartagena drug cartel. And to make maters even more dangerous, she plans to escape with millions of his dollars in cash, stored in crates on Juaquin’s boat. “Beware the woman without flaw, he thought, and he felt the first stirring of anger as he realized that everything Gabriella had ever said to him was probably a lie.” Riggan composes a thrilling and unpredictable adventure, bursting with action—if sometimes cinematically over-the-top—delivered at a breakneck pace. The central premise of the plot—a once-proud but now besmirched protagonist given a chance at moral renewal—is a tired pulp-fiction trope, but the author manages to make a compelling tale out of it nonetheless. Riggan’s prose is sharp (despite a few typos), and the themes he introduces—lost faith, self-forgiveness, and the morality of deception—are portrayed with impressive thoughtfulness.

An adventure story as dramatically gripping as it is intelligently executed.