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alyssajcori's review against another edition
4.0
This was wild! I didn't realize it was going to be so graphic right from the beginning (maybe I wouldn't have recommended it for my book club...). It was a fast paced, well researched story and I enjoyed every moment of it. While murders and crimes are not the subject I am generally drawn to, it was an interesting period to read about in Manhattan and I would recommend this to anyone looking for a quick, compelling read.
aliceboule's review against another edition
4.0
I chose this book quite randomly, knowing neither the author nor the content of the book beyond what the title suggested. I wasn't disappointed. Cohen elegantly blends history, investigative journalism, and literature to produce a quite evocative tale of Albert Hicks, the last man in New York to be convicted, tried and executed for piracy. In fact, I was so pleased with Cohen's work that I went ahead and got another one of his novels in the hopes of being equally blown away.
jakewritesbooks's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting enough story but weirdly told by the author with unnecessary editorializing and redundant comparisons. Granted, it's a story that isn't deep enough to fill a long Wikipedia page but the filler here distracts from the story itself.
hcgambrell's review against another edition
3.0
The title is a bit misleading: Hicks wasn't really a pirate (though he was convicted on piracy charges), and the connection to a "gangster nation" is tenuous at best. But the story is interesting, if a bit repetitive, and it was a quick listen.