A rousing historical treasure hunt.
Fireworks and treasure off the Spanish Main.
Journalist and historian Sancton, author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth, emphasizes the story of Roger Dooley, a self-described underwater archeologist who found a great sunken treasure ship. Sancton sets the scene in 1708 in the Caribbean, where a Spanish treasure fleet met a hostile British squadron. In the battle that followed, the galleon San José sank somewhere in waters off Colombia. Early chapters describe undersea treasure hunting, a wild-west get-rich-quick occupation dominated by larger-than-life characters who chew through fortunes from naïve investors and rarely hit the jackpot. The treasure hunters employ violent methods, including dynamite that destroys historical artifacts and gives them a terrible reputation among archeologists. Born in 1944 New Jersey to a Cuban mother who returned to the island with her son, Dooley quickly adapted to his new country. Fascinated by diving and the newly invented Aqua-Lung and mostly self-educated, he turned himself into a skilled underwater archeologist. He was intrigued by the San José, thought to contain unimaginable wealth. Commercial treasure hunters had found a wreck that they claimed was the San José but produced no convincing evidence. Immersed in Spanish archives, Dooley discovered documents and maps that revealed the treasure fleet’s route more accurately. Organizing his own investors, he contracted with Colombia’s government and in 2015 found a wreck 2,000 feet deep and extracted artifacts that proved it was the San José. A national celebration followed discovery of this icon of Colombian history, during which Dooley’s name was not mentioned. It is likewise rarely mentioned in the avalanche of lawsuits that continue to clog the courts from Spain (the ship’s original owner), Peru (whose mines produced the treasure), Indigenous groups (whose enslaved people extracted it), and former treasure hunters (whose contracts are supposedly still in force). Now in his 80s, Dooley remains a peripheral figure in stalled efforts to raise or simply celebrate this precious relic.
A rousing historical treasure hunt.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9780593594179
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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