I love this book so much.

Seriously, Mississippi Jack is easily my favorite of the six Bloody Jack books currently published. I just reread it as the seventh book, Rapture of the Deep, is due to be released soon, and I wanted to have the story-to-date fresh in mind. I hadn't read it since the first time through about two years ago, because of schoolwork and then graduation and job-hunting and a huge stack of to-be-reads, so this read-through was an absolute blast. So much fun.

Like the other books in the series, Mississippi Jack covers a range of genres - it's historical fiction with a heap of adventure, but also plenty of comedy, some action, and romance. This particular novel borrows heavily from Mark Twain's writings and, to me at least, seems to echo Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in several places.

The plot follows Jacky after her ordeal on the Bloodhound, as told in the fourth book. Just as she thinks she's to get back to Boston, she's arrested by her Royal Navy saviors in order to take her back to London for the reward. Naturally, she escapes, because that's what Jacky does, and she, Higgins, Katy Deere, and Jim Tanner head out West in an effort to avoid recapture. They travel down the Allegheny, Ohio, and finally the Mississippi rivers, picking up passengers, new members of Faber Shipping, Worldwide, and making friends along the way. They make enemies, too, of course, but Jacky always manages to come out on top.

One thing I liked about this book that the others don't have so much is that it also follows Jaimy's story. Usually, the reader doesn't really know what's going on with him until he pops up, but in Mississippi Jack, he's left the Navy (having been there when Jacky got arrested) and has gone to follow her and maybe catch up to her in some town along the way. He gets into adventures of his own (and is nearly killed several times over!), but he also gets lots of character development in the several chapters that follow his p.o.v.

Since this is a Bloody Jack novel and these books always turn things up to eleven, it's probably not surprising that Mike Fink gets a role. He's larger than life and absolutely fantastic, and maybe one of the best things of the early parts of the novel.

Now, there are problems with this book, I can't deny it, as much as I love it. There's plenty of anachronisms, most of them likely being a result of modern sensibilities getting mapped onto these historical characters. Quite likely, for a reader unfamiliar with the relevant history, these anachronisms would slide right by, but for other people, the fact that Jacky wears underpants in 1806 could be quite problematic (to be honest, whenever mentions of wardrobe come up, I can't help but wonder how familiar Meyer is with clothing from the period - it never seems to quite match what I know from my own reading and historical research).

Also, there are several Indian characters in the book who, while treated fairly decently I suppose, could come across as stereotyped. There's a cameo of Sacajawea, for example, that always has me rolling my eyes at how not-subtle it is, though she's never given that name. Jacky and two of her employees/guides (who are Shaw, I believe) also visit a village where there's a meeting of the Five Nations involving Tecumseh that was difficult for me to get past my willing suspension of disbelief. Those scenes themselves were interesting and funny and adventuresome, but the historicity and Jacky's managing to be there were a little much for me to take. But I suppose that's one of the things I like about the books, anyway — that Jacky does pop in and out of actual historic events.

Anyway, I love this book so much, even with the problems it has, and it's my favorite of the six I've read so far. But it can't be taken seriously and read as anything like historical fact or a representation of actual historical events or anything like that. I mean, Jacky's skippering a keelboat down the Mississippi River (a boat she conned Mike Fink out of!) and using it to run a three-part show - religious revival, medicine show, and music/dance act. It's fun and funny and Jacky is just as theatrical and melodramatic as ever. ( )

Mississippi Jack is volume 4 in the Jacky Faber books, and tells of Jacky's misadventures with a motley (and devoted!) crew along the American frontier. Definitely getting somewhat darker at times, and some of the scrapes she gets herself in (in love and war) are serious reading. ( )

Well.. this better not be the last book. I always want more with these books (even if they are 600 pages of adventure, humor and even romance...).It's good to finally see somewhat of a happy ending, but I'm still not satisfied if this is the end of the series. If you haven't read these books yet... you should. :) ( )

Jack is back! Ms. Faber is here once again in a totally new world. She's run to the Mississippi River to hide, but winds up starting her own little river transportation company. What she doesn't know is that Jamie is close behind, rushing to get back to her.

Another great book in the series!!! I love all of these books and encouage everyone to read them. They're full of mishief, fun, suspence, romance, and adventure-something for the type of reader who wants everything in one book. If you haven't started the series yet, do!
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I greatly enjoyed this book, which follows ably on its delightful predecessors. In this story, Jacky flees from New England and goes down the Mississippi, meeting interesting characters and situations on the way. I tagged this as "picaresque", a word I had to look up, which means "a popular subgenre of prose fiction which is usually satirical and depicts in realistic and often humorous detail the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his or her wits in a corrupt society." That describes the book very well.

I was disappointed that Jacky became something of a rogue in this book. I preferred when she was less morally ambiguous. ( )