Reviews

When I was a kid, I was always really interested in ghost stories and strange tales. Like the Mary Celeste that was found drifting completely empty; no signs of struggle, food left on the plates, no survivors ever found. Or the story of the Japanese soldier who refused to believe WWII had ended and spent 20+ years living in the jungle until his original commanding officer personally came to tell him to come home. This book takes from another famous story I read about when I was young; the water pit.

The water pit was originally found in the 18th century on an island off the eastern seaboard. A man found a small depression in the ground underneath a block and tackle. He began to dig and discovered a shaft that had been refilled. Excited that he was on the track of a famous rumored pirate treasure, they kept digging and discovered a wooden platform at 10 ft. Eventually digging down to around 100 ft, the pit suddenly began to fill with water. Long story short, no one has ever been able to excavate the obviously human-made pit and several lives have been lost.

Enter this book. A group of treasure-hunters seek to uncover the mystery of the money pit and recover the supposed 2 billion dollar reward. The old island curse however soon begins to claim lives. Very entertaining book.

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4.0

A rip-roaring tale! Fast-paced and involving, I really enjoyed it. I gave it 4 stars rather than 5 because it became rather more and more... fantastical? The threads of disbelief intruded a bit too much, niggling at the end a bit. Still, very involving and vivid and fun.

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