With several novels and two books of nonfiction to his credit, Canadian writer Iain Lawrence has "created an oeuvre that will appeal to a variety of readers," as Jeannette Hulick noted in Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. Lawrence's "books stand out from the crowd," continued Hulick, "thanks to his masterful pacing, his memorable and unusual characters, and his uncanny ability to capture the atmosphere of very specific times and places. I can't wait to see where he'll take us next."

Lawrence takes readers on high seas adventures in his trilogy of books featuring young John Spencer. Set in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, The Wreckers, The Smugglers, and The Buccaneers supply "edge-of-your-seat action," according to Hulick, as well as realistically rendered settings. More history is served up in Ghost Boy, a novel about an albino youth who works for a circus in the American...