Review of Jane Glatt's Dinghies & Deceit

Dinghies & Deceit by Jane Glatt

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Rescued to do someone else’s bidding, Pia prefers to hide in plain sight and keep a low profile. Her only goal now is to protect her younger sister, an innocent victim in the same person’s manipulations. She works hard and learns new tasks, each of which may prove valuable in being able to become self-sustaining. At the same time, she and Frieda help in the global need to provide food during the upcoming winter. Pirates alter her perspective when they invade the warehouse where she works and take her co-workers hostage. Never a willing Intelligencer, she must implement her training to rescue them. Together with Gustav Gunnarson, another Intelligencer, they use traits of Concentration and Charisma to find out what the pirates’ end game is and prove that they have once again formed an alliance with one of the Freeholders.

With winter fast approaching, Intelligencers Dagrun Lund and Calder Rahmson must return to the Sapphire Sea once more to gather food and supplies for the Fair Seas Treaty Alliance. But Dag’s trait keeps warning that something is not right. First, the pirates have divided into two factions and abandoned their longtime base of operations. Second, her twin sister Inger has disappeared. Third, Calder’s father has again lost his assassin’s token. No longer is his target a notorious and dangerous pirate named Pinho; it’s a man whom Inger cares about. Then Dag discovers that children with traits have been taken from their parents and imprisoned. Determined to find and protect them, she follows that trail while Calder attempts to stop his father. If he fails to safeguard Inger, Dag will never forgive him and their love will be lost forever.

In the meantime, the Freeholders gather to determine how to proceed in light of the devastating pirate attack that destroyed the alliance’s ships and placed their people on the brink of starvation. Lauma Straukus, Calder’s mother and the Acting Grand Freeholder, will dissolve the alliance and protect her own people rather than allow another corrupt Freeholder to assume the office. Dag’s suggestion of changing the treaty is a worthwhile one, but getting enough votes for that to happen proves difficult. It doesn’t help that Lauma and Master Intelligencer Nadez seem to be working a cross purposes, especially after Nadez unearths rumors that one of the Freeholders gained their title through murder.

This fourth book in The Intelligencers series is perhaps the most complex. Myriad threads dealing with piracy, human trafficking, corruption, and power are interwoven to create an intricate web, but the tension one might expect from this never quite reaches the mark. The primary focus is on Pia and Gustav’s journey, which is so vividly portrayed that readers will find themselves shivering with cold and yearning for hot soup to regain some warmth. Those new to the series may want to first read the earlier titles to gain a better understanding of who’s who and what traits are. Fans of the series will definitely be intrigued by some of the mysteries left unsolved.




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