Raiders
A Novel
-
- $16.99
-
- $16.99
Publisher Description
Twenty years after his greenhorn days in William McCloskey’s bestselling novel Highliners, Hank Crawford stands tall as a respected fishing captain in Kodiak, Alaska.
Set amongst the tumult of the early 1980s, Raiders follows the struggles of the Alaskan fishermen as they regain control of their fishing grounds from the fleets of foreign companies, who have been plundering their bays. But such companies aren’t deterred, and instead contract American boats to catch the fish for them. In order to keep his family afloat—he swears—Hank signs on with a Japanese firm.
Shunned as a traitor by his peers, Hank keeps on fishing. Their disgust and his tainted ethics will all be worth it for the chance to keep on fishing. But when Hank begins to suspect that his new employers are playing a political game—and playing him as the pawn—he must confront the possibility that in order to find redemption, he’ll have to sacrifice all he has.
In this masterful finale to the Highliners series, McCloskey takes on the all-too-real horrors of the seafaring life: storms that can sink a ship, giant fish that can snap a man’s arm. For anyone in love with the Alaskan backdrop, the feel of hauling in fish, or traveling the ever-changing sea, Raiders is a story to read, cherish, and never forget.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
McCloskey's third novel about Alaska's deep sea fishermen finds hero Hank Crawford up to his scuppers in cutthroat foreign competition, a bad business deal gone worse and a wife who wants to be a fishing boat captain in a male-dominated industry. After Highliners and Breakers, Hank is now the respected skipper of his own fishing boat, Jody Dawn, fishing for salmon in the frigid waters of western Alaska, near Kodiak Island. It is the early 1980s, and foreign competition has been banned from U.S. waters. Foreign companies, especially the Japanese, now contract with American fishermen to fish for them, offering many promises of prosperity with lots of hidden strings attached. A Japanese company, Tsurifune Suisan Ltd., gives Hank command of a newer, larger boat, but Hank must put up his own boat and his house as security and take on a Japanese fishing master as part of his crew. Meanwhile, Hank's wife, Jody, a skilled seaman herself, convinces Hank to let her skipper the Adele H, the boat that belonged to Hank's recently deceased mentor. For superstitious sailors, having a woman on a boat at all is just plain dangerous, but a woman skipper is viewed as blasphemy. Hank and his crew are very successful fishing for the Japanese, but they must fight more than just severe weather and bad luck as treachery and company lawyers set them up for a bad fall. This is a riveting tale of the complexities and harsh realities of the Alaskan fishing industry, peopled by fiercely independent and resourceful men and women whose every day is a struggle for survival.
