Loudon Dodd is an artist who should be painting masterpieces in Paris, but instead he's running supplies to remote Pacific islands and getting entangled in the shadowy world of 'wrecking' - the lucrative business of salvaging ships that meet their end on coral reefs. When a mysterious schooner appears in the harbor of Tai-o-hae and the abandoned wreck of the Flying Scud is discovered at Midway Island, Dodd finds himself at the center of an adventure that blends high comedy, maritime intrigue, and a mystery that demands solving. Stevenson's prose crackles with the anarchic energy of a man writing purely for pleasure, filling the Pacific islands with rogues, dreamers, and sharp-tongued traders who speak in relentless, brilliant dialogue. The Wrecker is less a novel with a plot than a headlong tumble through a world where anything can happen - and usually does. It endures because it captures the sheer irresponsible joy of storytelling, the pleasure of being swept somewhere wild and far from respectable civilization.
