The Wreckers

First-time novelist Lawrence gives a nod to Robert Louis Stevenson in a fast-paced, atmospheric yarn that will have adventure buffs glued to their seats. Author of two adult books on sailing, Lawrence paints a minutely observed picture of maritime life in 1799 Cornwall, where whole villages made a living by plundering ships they'd lured onto the jagged rocks of their storm-swept coastline. One such vessel is the Isle of Skye, owned by the father of 14-year-old narrator John Spencer, a Londoner who narrowly escapes drowning only to see a shipmate murdered by one of the wreckers. John goes in search of his missing father and stumbles across Stumps, a legless villain as terrifying as they come, who hints about a cache of gold and makes dark threats on his and his father's lives. Not knowing whom he can trust, John has to feel his way through a web of intrigue and treachery before time runs out for his father--and himself. From the evocative jacket painting of a moonlit shipwreck to the superb characterizations, hair-raising plot and authentic period details, Lawrence's fiction is first-rate. Ages 10-14. (May)