Matt McAvoy Book Review

I commented, in my previous reviews of books in this series, on my assumption that the Pirate books were a trilogy, because the author sent me three.  In fact, Prine appears to be creating something of a whole universe regarding the series.  There is so much ground left, clearly, and indeed in the back matter of Pirate Penance it is revealed there is much more to come from this bickering, bed-hopping band of 80s rock stars.  In fact, a whole third of this particular instalment is actually a small additional anthology of spin-off shorts involving the characters.  To tell the truth, I didn’t actually mind this little bonus – furthermore, I would even go as far as to say that I actually enjoyed these additional anecdotes probably more than I did the book’s primary narrative.  The bonus stories – including that of a mascot cat and a hard-partying sex addict taught a lesson by his suffering wife – are entertaining and great fun, whereas in my opinion the main storyline across the three books was very long and drawn out.  Even in this book, the closure of this tale still stretches for a good 120 pages or so.  Prine is right to think that the story is just too long to fit into one book, but perhaps that’s simply because it is just too long.  Having read all three, I found the points at which the author chose to split the three books a little baffling.  I felt, for the most part, looking back over the whole sum of the parts, involving Jay’s father, Lucy’s family and the wedding story farce, there was one good book there, but it would have needed a lot of trimming.

So, then, to take this episode as a standalone title feels a little strange, because it isn’t.  Still, for the purposes of this review, I will write as if it is.  Of course, I have said before and will only very briefly reiterate that you will simply have had to have read the books before this one, in order to have any clue what is going on, and so I will assume that you have done so.  Taking what is left of the story, the third book is actually not too bad.  It does finally wrap up that particular excursion into the characters’ lives, and I am glad for that, because I wasn’t a great fan – the whole “honeypot” obsession and the puppy love of the protagonists just didn’t do it for me.  But the book runs at a good pace, more so than the others – and that is probably due to its much shorter length.  Combined with the three shorts, it’s actually a good value book, and I am glad I got to wrap up that particular storyline. 

If you enjoyed the first two books then I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one, too, and I do like E.Z. Prine as a writer – even if this particular author does have a penchant for the minutiae of character interaction.