[mstern]

Just finished two sailing mysteries/thrillers:

Killer's Wake - Bernard Cornwell, and Shot in the Dark - Tony Gibbs. The Cornwell book is like his other sailing thrillers that have been mentioned here, but this one is more of a mystery than a thriller. Vagabond sailor (an impoverished Earl, no less) returns to England for his mother's funeral and has to deal with his very nasty family and a missing Van Gogh painting worth millions.

The Gibbs book is different, and not only because its set in Santa Barbara instead of England/Channel Islands. More of a conventional murder mystery, but lots of sailing/nautical stuff. The characters are really nice too, very fleshed out. I bought both books from Amazon (along with another Cornwell thriller, "Scoundrel", that I will hopefully get to soon), but it turns out that I had read Shot in the Dark when it first came out about 15 years ago. Still enjoyable as I had mostly forgotten what had happened. I think there is a second book in the series that I will now try and find.