STINGERS

A visit to a small Bahamian island pitches young shark taggers into a whirl of encounters with natural hazards, pirates past and present, and more than one kind of hidden treasure.

Following on their adventures with shark poachers in the series opener, Fins (2020), 13-year-old Maribel; her younger sister, Sabina (both Cuban refugees); and White ex–farm boy Luke teamed up as Sharks Incorporated. They have barely arrived on idyllic, cave-riddled Katt Island to help their secretive biologist employer investigate the invasive lionfish that are devastating the local reef ecology before one is sucked into a tidal whirlpool, another falls into a pit and finds a golden doubloon, and all three save an elderly author from sharks. Folding in real-life issues such as the pressures poverty puts on the racially diverse local residents as well as info-dumps on natural and island history as he goes, White puts his trio, who are joined by the writer and a young islander, on the trail of a century-old mystery featuring descendants of Anne Bonny and other pirates and also up against a bumbling but scary pair of treasure hunters on the way to climactic revelations, a glittering hoard, and the pursuit of poachers who are hunting hatchling sea turtles. Anything else? Well, there may or may not be a ghost or two in the mix, too.

Something for everyone but especially fans of fast-paced eco-fiction.