Wappin' Wharf: A Frightful Comedy of Pirates

What happens to pirates when they grow too old to swing from yardarms? Charles S. Brooks answers with this gleefully dark comedy set on the wind-blasted Devon cliffs, where two retired buccaneers drink themselves through their twilight years, nursing rum and regrets. Patch-Eye broods over lost glory; the Duke schemes with fading cunning. Their old captain Flint haunts their superstitions like a ghost they cannot quite shake. Then Red Joe arrives with word of a merchant ship on the horizon, and the old men must decide if enough remains of the pirates they once were to pull off one last, desperate heist. Brooks wrings genuine comedy from genuine pathos: these are men who were once feared, now huddled in a leaky cabin, telling lies to each other and to themselves about the adventures behind them. The wit is sharp, the character work surprisingly tender. For readers who enjoy theatrical comedies with a bit of teeth, or anyone who has ever looked back at their younger, braver self with both pride and disbelief.