My copy of the book is gone. It was begged from me by someone eager to read the story based on my summary of the events. That is a confession of guilt which I hope the author will forgive. A loaned book seldome leads to an additional sale, but the sharing of the story sometimes outweighs the profit motive.

This chapter fills in details we missed about the sinking of the Bluebelle, and we gain an even greater appreciation for Tere's ability to keep her composure. She has seen her mother and brother dead in pools of blood and been threatened and then abandoned on a sinking boat by Harvey, yet, she has the presence of mind to locate a float and pry it free for her use.

She drifts away from the submerged boat alone in the dark wondering if Harvey will come back to kill her.

Do you suppose that Capt. Harvey had lost his rage?

Decades ago, here in Brevard County Florida, a man went to a grocery store and methodically shot and killed everyone he could find in there. This went on for some time as one of the employees hid in a bathroom. The killer eventually found her but instead of killing her he just kept her as a hostage. Perhaps he felt he needed the protection of a hostage, but I had the sense that his killing rage had subsided and he was in a form of shock.

Harvey seems to show some of the same signs. Otherwise, why would he not have killed Tere? or come after her?

Forgive me for phrasing it that way. I don't mean to sound insensitive and am very glad that he did not harm Tere, but we do wonder when we hear about people snapping.

You ask a really good question, Stahrwe.

First I'll say that I'm "happy" that Harvey didn't kill Tere. I put "happy" in quotes because it feels downright icky to use the word happy anywhere within 1,500 pixels of this story. There is very little to rejoice about when an entire family is slaughtered at sea.

If author Richard Logan has the chronology of what unfolded on the Bluebelle correct I'd say that Harvey probably had killed everyone else while in a rage of raw emotion. Of course the killings started with his own wife, which would be before the rage, but when Tere's father rushed to the commotion Harvey was caught in a bad situation where he lost his mind and just attacked everyone. Tere was sleeping down below and her good fortune is that she slept through the worst of it. By the time she woke up and looked around Harvey had already calmed down a bit. This is my assessment.

Harvey still needed Tere dead and in Harvey's mind he was killing Tere when he ordered her to stay below deck as the boat took on water. I assume Harvey just never thought Tere could survive the Bluebelle sinking in the pitch black night. She was a little girl and how many little girls have the sense about them to do everything Tere did? She threw the rope (very smart) and managed to quickly free the cork raft and get into it before she went down with the boat. Many people (not just little girls) would have lost their minds after seeing the dead bodies and blood everywhere.

Harvey assumed Tere was going to drown and he didn't have to stab her personally. Damn, typing that makes me upset. I really wish Harvey survived and was sent either to life in prison or to the electric chair. I would volunteer to pull the lever on the chat.

stahrwe, how would you like to be the Book Discussion Leader for this book? You're doing a great job so far. Of course now your own book is lost at sea. But I bet you remember enough to handle the discussion leader job. PM me if interested or make a post here.