Dixey (or Dixie) Bull is generally considered the first pirate in Maine. As these things so often go, even if he dreamed of being a pirate when he was a kid, living the life of a buccaneer of the seas was not his first intention. But, given his moniker, perhaps becoming a corsair was merely his manifest destiny.

In the early 17^th century, Bull started life off as an honest merchant, but when a roving band of French men attacked him along the coast of Maine, moored in Penobscot Bay, and relieved him of trade items of knives and beads as well as the furs he was bartering them for, something clicked in his brain. The raiders left him his small sailing vessel, but nothing else.

Destitute and desperate he visited several English settlements and recruited fifteen men to be in his band of pirates. They started out ransacking small vessels, expanded their treachery to settlements along the coast, and then The Dread Dixey Bull and crew disappeared into thin air, never to be heard from again.

Almost one hundred years later we come across Black Sam Bellamy. Much like Bull, Bellamy started off as a sailor, but he was with the British Royal Navy. Stationed in Cape Cod, he’d fall in love with a young lass named Goody Hallett. It is not quite known whether she was already married, and her husband disapproved (funny that), or she was too young, and her parents rejected Bellamy, but either way, he felt it necessary to go find his fortune so that he could return and take Goody away.

He initially went looking for the treasure of the Lost Spanish Armada of 1715, but when that didn’t work out, he turned to piracy. In a little over a year, he became the wealthiest pirate ever, capturing the loot for up to fifty-three different ships.

And this is where it becomes interesting. Loaded down with loot, he came to Maine. He stopped in Pemaquid Point before continuing to Machiasport with the thought of creating a Pirate Utopia, a democratic community of buccaneers enjoying the splendors of their booty. He had one task left to do first, though, and that was to retrieve his love, Goody Hallett, from Cape Cod.

Unfortunately, his ship was caught in a fierce storm and sunk, and he and all but two of his men went down with the ship.

And this is where my latest Clay Wolfe adventure begins. One of those survivors carries with him a treasure map that suggests that the stolen riches of Black Sam Bellamy were actually buried/hidden in the area now known as Port Essex. This map is uncovered in a King James Bible by two antique dealers who hire Clay and Baylee to help them find the treasure.

Of course, it is not that simple. Pirates, Motorcycle Clubs, and Sex Doll Manufacturers round out the mix of those hunting the treasure.

Pirate Trap publishes March 27^th. Dead men tell no tales. Or do they?

About the Author

Matt Cost was a history major at Trinity College. He owned a mystery bookstore, a video store, and a gym, before serving a ten-year sentence as a junior high school teacher. In 2014 he was released and began writing. And that’s what he does. He writes histories and mysteries.

Cost has published five books in the Mainely Mystery series, with the fifth, Mainely Wicked, just released in August of 2023. He has also published four books in the Clay Wolfe Trap series, with the fifth, Pirate Trap, due out March 27^th, 2024.

For historical novels, Cost has published At Every Hazard and its sequel, Love in a Time of Hate, as well as I am Cuba. In April of 2023, Cost combined his love of histories and mysteries into a historical PI mystery set in 1923 Brooklyn, Velma Gone Awry. City Gone Askew will follow in July of 2024.

Cost now lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Harper. There are four grown children: Brittany, Pearson, Miranda, and Ryan. A chocolate Lab and a basset hound round out the mix. He now spends his days at the computer, writing.