A High Wind In Jamaica by Richard Hughes - April 15, 1976

Frogmore, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England: Chatto, Bodley Head & Jonathan Cape and Granada / Triad Panther. April 15, 1976. 1979 reprint. Mass Market Paperback. Good. Ex-library. Nice reading copy. 173 pages.

After a hurricane levels their Jamaican estate, the Bas-Thorntons decide to send their children back to the safety and comfort of England. On the way they are aptured by pirates. Jonsen, the well-meaning pirate captain, doesn't know how to dispose of his new cargo, while the children adjust with surprising ease to their new life. As this strange company sails around the Caribbean, events turn more frightening and the pirates find themselves increasingly incriminated by the children's fates. The most shocking betrayal, however, will take place only after the return to civilization. The swift, almost hallucinatory action, together with its provocative insight into the psychology of children, made it a best seller when it was first published in 1929 and has since established it as a classic exploration of the nature, and limits, of innocence.