If you like boats, Caribbean islands, and thriller/suspense novels, you'll love Circle of Bones, Kling's fifth novel. Set mostly on a sailboat and salvage dive boat as well as Caribbean islands, this full-length mystery is full of enjoyable characters in a contemporary plot complicated and suspenseful enough to keep you turning pages with increasing speed right to the end.
Christine Kling
Circle of Bones
Tell-Tale Press eBook, 2011
Kindle and Nook editions - $3.99
What It's About?
Maggie Riley, an ex-Marine, sails her 40-footer into the Caribbean and immediately finds herself in the middle of what seems like a crazy treasure hunt for a submarine sunk in World War II. Worse, the bad guys after the hunter involve someone from her past, evoking memories of her dead brother and mysterious events in Peru long ago.
As the plot develops, her elderly father's apparent role in some sort of conspiracy in the past intersects with the present. With pressures increasing, she joins with the archeologist-treasure hunter to find the sub and its secrets to what just might be a worldwide conspiracy with enormous implications for contemporary politics.
Bonus for sailors: Lots of time aboard boats and a nice sailing sequence.
Why It's a Good Read
Any thriller needs a strong plot unfolding at a steady pace to work well - and Kling is very skillful in controlling the tension and flow of events.
Perhaps more important, the reader needs to care about the characters to become fully immersed, and Kling is a master here also. The heroine Maggie Riley is charming, smart, and witty and has us hanging on her every thought. But she's also deeply conflicted about her past and family relationships, about her independence and love life. While some of the bad guys are rather two-dimensional (let's be honest: the genre here is suspense, not Shakespearean drama), Riley is fully alive and carries the reader's interest without once stumbling. When something about the novel's ending leaves you with the feeling we may see her again in the future, we're happily looking forward to her further adventures.
I don't mean to cast aspersions with that "genre" comment above, since Circle of Bones like all fine novels rises above the conventions of genre - but it is important that the story works well as a mystery, and it does. Because Kling knows her craft so well, however, it also sometimes reads like a "literary novel" with a strong sense of scene, powerful dialogue, and excellent control of point of view shifting among different characters and times.
Meaning that a discriminating reader will be pleased!
About the Author
Christine Kling is both an accomplished sailor and author. A lifelong sailor who holds a captain's license, she clearly knows boats and the waters of which she writes, including the Caribbean islands of Dominica and Guadeloupe where much of Circle of Bones is set. She's currently living and writing aboard her sailboat as she also manages a website full of useful sailing and writing information.
A former college professor of English, Kling knows how to write a good story as well. Her first four novels, mysteries, feature Seychelle Sullivan, a feisty tugboat captain in Florida - I'd highly recommend these as well. She's also written sailing articles for many boating magazines and recently published another ebook of stories titled Sea Bitch: Four Tales of Nautical Noir.
Other Sailing Books of Note
- Bernard Moitessier's memoir The Long Way is one of the best-ever narratives of a philosophic master sailor singlehanding around the world.
- Tania Aebi's Maiden Voyage chronicles her 30-month solo circumnavigation begun at age 18, a story of adventure and maturation at sea.
- Torre DeRoche's Swept: Love with a Chance of Drowning is a true tale about an inexperienced sailor cruising off into adventure with her boyfriend in a small sailboat across the South Pacific.
