The total number of hostages at any given time is a moving target, with hostages being ransomed as new hostages are captured. The International Maritime Bureau reports that last year (2011), a total of 1,206 seamen were held hostage at some point during the year, including some held for more than two years. Hostages are forced to live in deplorable conditions and subjected to constant physical and psychological abuse. Based on interviews with freed hostages, over half report being beaten and approximately ten percent suffered severe abuse, including being tied up in the sun for hours, being locked in freezers, or having fingernails pulled out with pliers. Thirty-five hostages died in 2011, nineteen of whom died while used as human shields.
Deadly Coast is fiction, and none of the characters or their actions is real. As much as I might like to play God and wrap up the Somali pirate problem so neatly, I’m afraid the solution offered exists only between the covers of this book. But though the story is fiction, I did attempt to sketch the scenes in Somalia with some authenticity. I was greatly assisted in that effort by the book The Pirates of Somalia by Jay Bahadur. Mr. Bahadur is a Canadian journalist who spent time in Somalia interacting with the pirates. The result is a compelling narrative that is obligatory reading for anyone interested in learning about Somali pirates. I will add that Mr. Bahadur went to great lengths to present a balanced view and his book is wonderfully objective. As a novelist rather than a journalist, I labored under no such obligation, and my pirates are considerably nastier than Mr. Bahadur’s. I leave it to the reader to decide which portrayal they find more compelling.
So there you have it—the threads unraveled from the fabric of history and woven around current events to produce Deadly Coast. I hope you enjoyed reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Fair Winds and Following Seas,
R.E. (Bob) McDermott
Postscript on the Somali pirate situation - October 2014 - It’s been two years since I penned Deadly Coast, and I’m pleased to say that during that period the Somali pirate situation has changed for the better. Aggressive use of private marine security (i.e. armed guards) by shipowners coupled with more aggressive anti-piracy operations by the world’s navies have reduced Somali pirate attacks to a seven year low. As portrayed in Deadly Coast, the pirates view the whole sordid thing as a ’business,‘ and when you increase the cost of doing that business, the smart money goes elsewhere. That’s the good news. The bad news is that piracy is increasing off the West Coast of Africa, where both the motivations and methods of operation differ greatly. So piracy continues as it has for hundreds of years, with the sporadic efforts at eradication resembling nothing so much as a giant global game of Whack-a Mole.
Thank You
I’m truly honored you chose to read my work and sincerely hope you enjoyed it. If you’d like to read more Dugan adventures, check out the listing of my other books on the following page.
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And finally, independent authors such as myself live and die on the strength of our Amazon reviews, so for us they’re a very big deal. But it’s not enough to just accumulate a lot of good reviews, as factors in the Amazon quality ratings also include both the frequency and timeliness of those reviews. Thus a book with a lot of great reviews will tumble in the ratings if reviews don't continue to accummulate on a regular basis.
So the bottom line is, I regularly beg for reviews, and appreciate every single one.
If you’re so inclined, please consider leaving a review of Deadly Coast at this link.
On that note, and whatever your decision regarding a review, I’ll close by thanking you once again for taking a chance on a new author, with the hope that I’ve entertained you at least a bit, and with the promise that I’ll always strive to deliver a good story at a fair price.
Fair Winds and Following Seas,
R.E. (Bob) McDermott
More Books by R.E. McDermott
Deadly Straits - When marine engineer and very part-time spook Tom Dugan becomes collateral damage in the War on Terror, he's not about to take it lying down. Falsely implicated in a hijacking, he's offered a chance to clear himself by helping the CIA snare their real prey, Dugan's best friend, London ship owner Alex Kairouz. But Dugan has some plans of his own. Learn more and read a sample on Amazon.
Deadly Crossing - Dugan’s attempts to help his friends rescue an innocent girl from the Russian mob plunge him into a world he’d scarcely imagined, endangering him and everyone he holds dear. A world of modern day slavery and unspeakable cruelty, from which no one will escape, unless Dugan can weather a Deadly Crossing. Learn more and read a sample on Amazon.
Table of Contents
Deadly Coast
Dedication
Author's Notes
Acknowledgements
Thanks
Books by R.E. McDermott
Deadly Coast (A Tom Dugan Novel) Page 29
