Charlie Book has a strange job for the Texas Park and Wildlife Department, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. He lives aboard the ship Christabel, a 19th century freighter that is half sunk off the coast of Galveston. Time has passed and an ecosystem has grown on the vessel, along with a forest of mighty mangroves. Book, with his team, is looking to turn it into a museum. But that all changes when Ruby Cahill, a past love, shows up in dire straits with a stranger and a baby and demands they stay on the ship for protection. Then things go from weird to insane once the birds arrive.
Golden does what he does best in creating a compelling story. The characters are interesting and you want to know what’s going to happen to them. Although it does take a little while to get going, and the reader doesn’t really half a grasp on things until the halfway point of the book, which is a little disappointing. But then everything gets turned to eleven in that way Golden has become known for, and the reader is clamped to the book, flipping pages, wondering how everything is going to turn out.