Sea of Lost Dreams

Set in 1921, Máté's rousing sequel to Ghost Sea finds Captain Dugger and his mate, Nello Cerriaci, on an odyssey from Mexico to Polynesia aboard Dugger's ketch with an odd trio of companions. Already aboard is Kate, a woman with no memories beyond the past three weeks. Joining them after a daring rescue of Nello from a Mexican jail are Darina, an Irish woman calling herself a nun, and Robert Guillaume, a self-professed French spy. They set sail for Tahiti, an exhausting, treacherous 3,000-mile, month-long voyage. A change of course lands them at Hiva Oa, a small French Polynesian island, whose few nonnative inhabitants include a drunken Irish priest, a French soldier, a Finn, two Chinese pearl divers, and an Irishman gone native and trying to expel the French. In Máté's capable hands it adds up to romance, danger, betrayal, and tragedy on an island paradise that offers its share of satanic choices. 8-city author tour. (Apr.)