December 6, 2022
Dead in the Water is an Economist Best Book of 2022!
“Books about merchant shipping are rarely so gripping, but this one looks at what really happened when pirates attacked the Brillante Virtuoso in the Gulf of Aden in 2011. A startling tale of fraud and impunity.”
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November 26, 2022
Dead in the Water Selected as a Sunday Times Book of the Year
“The cliché goes that there are no rules at sea; although that’s technically true, this powerful book gives weight to it as a view…Dead in the Water has the feel of a thriller, but also laudably explains the complexity—and corruption—of the world of international shipping.”
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September 22, 2022
Dead in the Water Shortlisted for Financial Times Business Book of the Year!

Winners to be announced in London on Dec. 5.
Details Here

June 10, 2022
Dead in the Water Reviewed by The Globe and Mail
“Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel expose the shipping industry’s seething, lawless underbelly – or hull – in strange and spectacular fashion...a jaw-dropping story.”
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May 15, 2022
Dead in the Water Reviewed by The Wall Street Journal
“In gripping style…[Campbell and Chellel] not only explain an esoteric corner of the world economy but relish the juicy contrasts between the Latin-quoting English barristers and the thuggish ship salvagers, between the squeamish insurance men and the resolute ex-coppers."
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May 7, 2022
The Economist Reviews Dead in the Water
“Dead in the Water tells a startling tale of fraud and impunity at sea…exposes the dark, barnacle-encrusted goings-on beneath the shipping industry’s waterline…gripping.”
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May 6, 2022
Essay on Dead in the Water in The New Republic
“Dead in the Water is an expertly constructed crime thriller—the sort of work of narrative nonfiction that seems destined for a film adaptation. It is also an unexpected case study in the way that fraud has permeated the global economy, undermining democratic governance by both feeding off and facilitating government corruption.”
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April 30, 2022
Dead in the Water Reviewed by The New York Times
“A rich story of fake piracy and a global conspiracy so complex, and involving so much money, that it seems to inhabit a different quantum level…a masterpiece of explanatory journalism.”
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April 28, 2022
Dead in the Water Reviewed by Financial Times
“Dead in the Water is a triumphant example of what happens when editors give reporters the time to pull at such a story’s threads until the deceptions unravel.”
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April 14, 2022
Dead in the Water Excerpt Published in Bloomberg Businessweek

After the hijacking of the Brillante Virtuoso in 2011, the shipping industry was rife with questions and rumors. In this excerpt, a pair of London private investigators squeeze a source who claims to know the truth.
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