Review of Helen Hollick's When the Mermaid Sings

When The Mermaid Sings: A Jesamiah Acorne Short Read Nautical Adventure by Helen Hollick

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


For years, Jesamiah Mereno has endured his older half-brother’s bullying. But the day they bury their father in 1708, the harassment goes too far and Jesamiah fights back. Banished from his Virginia home, he signs aboard a merchant ship bound for Port Royal where he hopes to meet up with a friend of his father, Captain Malachias Taylor. On the way, the vessel is overtaken by a Spanish frigate. In spite of his young age, Jesamiah devises a wily plan and the merchant captain takes a risk on the fifteen year old.

Who is he? The lad with black hair. Special gifts are awakening in eight-year-old Tiola Garrick, but they must be kept secreted from her father – a strict authoritarian minister who rules family and congregation with abusive resolve. Although in Cornwall, she reaches out time and again to safeguard the young stranger, especially once he reaches Port Royal.

Meeting Malachias proves easier than Jesamiah expects, but the merchantman’s bosun is none too happy at Jesamiah’s desertion to Malachias’s crew. A confrontation is inevitable, and soon results in new self-awareness. He’s also tempted by a beautiful mermaid, who mistakes him for his father, while a girl’s voice in his head warns him away from the deadly siren. Tiola has spoken to him in the past, but never before revealed her name. When his father’s ghost also speaks, Jesamiah wonders who’s real and who’s not.

After a successful voyage, the Mermaid returns to Port Royal and Malachias disappears. A week later a note arrives with orders for Jesamiah to appear at a gentleman’s club. When he gets there, he must play the final round of a high-stakes card game. Contrary to Malachias’s hope, Jesamiah loses and, once again, Jesamiah comes up with an audacious plan to regain what is lost. This time it means they can never return to Port Royal.

This short story is a prequel to Hollick’s Sea Witch Voyages series and takes place over the span of nearly three years. Its geographical spread extends from Virginia south to the West Indies and east to England and Africa. I first reviewed this book in 2018, but this new edition includes scenes omitted from the original publication. The point of view shifts abruptly in one or two scenes, which may initially disconcert readers; on the other hand, one character’s recounting of the day Port Royal sank into the sea allows us to experience the event through the eyes of a young boy.

Within the pages of When the Mermaid Sings we learn why Jesamiah changes his surname to Acorne, as well as how he becomes a pirate. Along the way, he meets Henry Jennings, with whom he will cross paths in the future, and Charles Vane, who becomes a deadly enemy. Like the blue ribbon Jesamiah weaves into his plaited hair, Hollick entwines run-ins with the Royal Navy, a murder accusation, a mortal skirmish belowdecks, and a mind-boggling sea chase that nearly costs Jesamiah his life into a fast-paced enchanted tale set before his days as captain of the Sea Witch.




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