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Quintspinner, A Pirate's Quest

Dianne Greenlay
iUniverse, Inc. (2010)
ISBN 9781450233972
Reviewed by Charline Ratcliff for RebeccasReads (1/11)

The Written Art Awards, a literary awards program that RebeccasReads hosts annually, is once again drawing near. I was asked if I would be interested in reading “Quintspinner, A Pirate’s Quest” since the author, Dianne Greenlay, has submitted her book to be considered. The unusualness of the book’s title intrigued me, so, I agreed.

The premise of the story is this: the year is 1717 and sixteen-year-old Tess Willoughby and her family reside in London, England. In case you were wondering, the London of 1717 is not what it is today. As the daughter of a trusted and well- known physician, Tess has seen her share of horrors and visited some of London’s seediest neighborhoods. However, none of what Tess has experienced so far in her young life has prepared her for the shock of witnessing the murder of one of London’s renowned seers. This seer is also the owner of a rare, prophetic, spinner ring and with her dying breath she charges Tess with the keeping of it. At this point what’s a girl to do except say yes? Panic-stricken, Tess rushes for the safety of her home. Unfortunately the bizarre happenings of this day have started a chain of events from which she is unable to escape. As the story unfolds, Tess learns a shocking family secret, finds herself trapped on a merchant ship and is unwillingly betrothed to the very murderer who covets the power of the mysterious spinner ring.

So, overall, I did find “Quintspinner, A Pirate’s Quest” to be an interesting tale. Unfortunately I wasn’t always thrilled by the author’s writing style. In certain places the writing came across as “short” which caused these passages to read as “terse” or “clipped” and because of this, at times, the book lacked “draw.” Also, while this book is classed as historical fiction it seemed to read more like a Harlequin novel, minus the love scenes, which isn’t a bad thing as long as you enjoy that style. I personally prefer the historical fiction I read to use history in order to give a fictional story a more realistic feel.

And finally, it would appear that Greenlay has left the ending of “Quintspinner, A Pirate’s Quest” open for a sequel. Even though this book didn’t exactly hold me captive I am looking forward to reading her next installment for two reasons: to learn what plans fate has in store for Tess Willoughby and to see how Greenlay grows as a writer.

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