I enjoyed this non fiction book about a real life pirate. Who lived a life that seemed more fiction than fact but was very much fact. I couldn't put it down. I finished it in a few days.

I very often watch TV shows and groan when a big twist happens. A main character is in a seemingly impossible situation but somehow survives. It feels cheap and contrived. What does this have to do with Keith Thomson’s Born to Be Hanged? Well, his book is full of these types of situations and somehow the pirates don’t all die immediately.

Thomson follows the true story of a band of pirates who cross Panama on foot with the intention of freeing a native princess and maybe doing some plundering. This trip becomes a two-year odyssey of the most inexplicable decision-making I have ever read.

While the story alone is amazing, the book is further elevated by Thomson. He realizes just how absurd his characters are and he leans into it. I laughed out loud quite often from Thomson’s humorous asides. This is a highly readable adventure which anyone can enjoy.

Thank you, NetGalley for the opportunity of reading Born to Be Hanged. This deeply rich book makes one feel as though they are sailing along with the Buccaneers navigation in canoes, stealing Spanish gallon ships, and foraging for food on deserted islands while questing for gold and silver. The book is wonderfully written, a mixture of diary entries and research to round out what life was like for these men who roamed the South Seas in a quest for riches.
There is so much to relish in this book as stories are pulled from real people. One has to realize that the book must be taken with a grain of salt as the men may have embellished their tales, were often drunk, ill, and fighting for their survival. Even with guns and grit, navigating the waters was never easy, given that they were always enemies lurking on the horizon. Storms were also a constant threat, and when they hit they were often so fierce they were capable of breaking a boat apart and causing ships to lose their way never to be seen again. Decisions had to be made by all the men in the group even with a captain, as missions were always fraught danger, and sometimes men would abort. Life was often on the edge, as men were killed in battles and leadership had to be rearranged.
This books gets us into the minds of swashbuckling pirates, with lots of action and a provides insights that most books don't cover.