Dead Men Tell No Tales Paperback – April 1, 2012

Mr. Cole takes a boat to Australia during the gold rush. He finds little gold, so he goes back home. As it happens, he gets on the same boat he came out on, the 'Lady German.' Whereupon he meets Eva Denison. He does not immediately fall in love, but he does eventually. She is being escorted back to England by her step-father, Jorges Santos. The boat is not just taking some folks back to England, but has a secret cargo, and, as it happens, catches fire and is lost at sea. Mr. Cole, it appears, is the only survivor of this tragedy. There are some hints of the coming events, but none that explain the full extent of what is occurring. The story explains Mr. Coles survival and his life in London, where Mr. Cole is feted and praised as the survivor to distraction. Etc.,etc., the events happen and everything turns out for good because others have evidence and wit to realize what is happening, so save the day. This not a swashbuckling tale, or detective fiction, but it could be one or the other to my mind. It was inetesting to hear.

In good ways. The style of writing in old fashioned but very descriptive and in fact it "is" Interesting and relaxing to read.The story is not rushed. The characters are well developed. The plot of the story moves along nicely and did keep my interest. I have been known to put a book down and not finish if it is moving too slowly and not going anywhere. This book was not like that at all. I recommend this book to those who can enjoy a well told story that is adventurous and romantic in an older writing style, but a good tale none the less.

This is a mid-nineteenth century story of adventure on sea and land. It's certainly weak compared with Stevenson or Melville, but is fine for those who enjoy or study the period.

Ok, this was the WORST book I've ever tried to read. Yes, that's right, "tried" to read. I didn't finish it because I couldn't get beyond Chapter 5 and I finally just gave up!! Good thing it was cheap. Do NOT waste your time.

This book was in a word--awful.As a piece of literature, it had all the worst features of Victorian mawkish sentimentality. That could be ignored, if the story were worth reading, but it isn't.Many books suffer from a weak main character. This book suffers from having one at all. If you left out Cole (protagonist), you might actually have a story here--possibly--worth reading, unfortunately, he's there to spoil any hope of that.This book tries to be many things--and fails at all of them. It opens with a sinking ship (giving it the feel of a survival story), then becomes a kind of thriller (not all that thrilling). Oh, and a romance, without being in the least romantic.You hear of couples lacking chemistry, but I don't think you know the meaning of the expression until you meet Cole and Eva, who bicker like an old married couple every chance they get. For some reason, never explained, Cole has fallen madly in love with Eva, despite their constant battles and no encouragement from her whatsoever. He thinks she dies on the ship and spends the dull middle of the story moping and mourning. Eventually, he winds up in the hands of a handsome gentlemen, who turns out to be--not surprisingly--the villain.The rest of the book is made up of Cole playing the hero (and failing horribly at it). None of his actions can be called brave, because that would imply prudence. They are all reckless to the point of sheer stupidity. He ignores a warning to get away from danger (from the gentleman villain), then is caught attempting to rescue his lady love (Eva). He is wheedled, threatened, wheedled, threatened. He makes repeatedly unsuccessful escape attempts.By far, the worse part of this story involves the gentleman villain. Take into account that this book was written in 1895 and set some fifty years earlier. Not exactly enlightened times. That said, the racism in this book is toxic. I'm not talking about the N word. The characters certainly say that enough. That isn't my chief complaint. The author could have avoided the N word altogether and still come across as a narrow-minded bigot. The darker a character is in this story, the less sympathy he gets.The villains consist of four men--a white captain, the gentleman villain (white), a Portuguese gentleman, and an African slave. The main character feels a great deal of pity for the white portion of the group, even going so far as to supply the gentleman villain with ammunition before he begins a shoot-out with the police! He also helps the gentleman villain to escape, despite the fact that he was involved in a crime that killed hundreds of people. Later, he learns that the gentleman villain only participated out of a sense of honor (he couldn't back out without breaking his word and betraying his friends) and because he was descended from former smugglers (it was in his blood to be bad).The Portuguese gentleman and his African slave meet their end by stumbling into one another in the dark and simultaneously stabbing/shooting each other, an outcome that is poetic, but wholly absurd. How dark was it? How did they manage to run into each other while escaping together?The author has forced us to endure this whole drama from Cole's eyes for the sole purpose of a clever (cheap) trick at its end. We assume that he didn't get the girl--but wait, he did, after all. HEA. Sort of!

I enjoyed the book very much even though there were areas I thought a bit too slow. However, I do consider myself a synical reader...to the point.

Good book. Enjoyed reading it.