Robert Hough

Maybe I’ve led a sheltered life, but I didn’t know that such things as chess hustlers existed, nor that they prowled seventeenth-century London’s coffee shops and taverns, looking for fools and their money. But in this well-told, riveting novel, which begins in 1664, young Benny Wand has a difficult choice: Spend twelve years in Newgate for having fleeced the wrong gentleman or be deported to Jamaica. Though Benny has never been to sea and has no apparent skills other than his chess mastery, he instantly chooses the New World, for he rightly expects a dozen years behind bars will be a death sentence by slow torture.

But on arrival in Port Royal, called “the wickedest city on earth,” he quickly realizes that his prospects are dim indeed. An acre of transported criminals like himself crowds a beach, living on rum and roast turtle, with no hope except the rumored reappearance of Henry Morgan, a privateer licensed by the British Crown.

Morgan’s reputation for daring, and his ability to liberate Spanish gold from its former owners have the societal castoffs excited, and no wonder. Not only is it possible for men who wouldn’t know sky from ocean to become rich virtually overnight, but, as Benny learns when the fabled captain shows up, his leader has no use for the social barriers that have kept his new crewmen down all their lives. In return for obedience, Morgan offers something extraordinary–advancement based on merit.

Benny soon profits thereby, for Morgan fancies himself a chess player and, hearing of Benny’s prowess, invites him to his quarters for a game. What a heady experience for a young man who’s never come closer to power than being on the wrong side of a judge’s bench. Benny revels in their contests and in Morgan’s free admission that his deck swab’s skill easily surpasses his own, the first praise he’s ever received. What’s more, he asks Benny his secret, only to be told there is none. Victory, he explains, depends on seeing what’s in front of you, what might be lurking just out of sight, and in planning for both.

Naturally, Morgan recognizes the inherent military wisdom in Benny’s approach, and you won’t be surprised to hear that, little by little, the captain relies on him for advice in the field. However, though Morgan listens, what always eludes him is Benny’s gift at anticipating what the enemy will do next. The adventures make for tense reading, but there’s much more here. The relationship between the two men explores the nature of power (and how it corrupts); the fury unleashed in men whom society has humiliated; and how money influences both.

The problem with power, however, is that it can possess you, and Benny’s no exception. Having noticed Morgan’s growing corruption, he worries about his own, and whether he’s become his captain’s creature, caught up in another man’s game. Is Benny a pawn, or is he the man who can save Morgan from himself?

Hough’s narrative moves swiftly but seldom compresses an emotional turning point. I like the vivid prose, which, in Benny’s salty, worldly voice, makes his character come alive. Morgan comes through too, though less clearly, perhaps the drawback of this particular first-person approach. None of the other characters seems fully fledged, but the key relationship is so complex and delivers so much that this matters less than it might otherwise. At times, I wondered whether Benny’s language or thought process sounded too modern, but that too shouldn’t stop anyone from reading this entertaining, thought-provoking novel.… (más)

The Mexican revolution left the small town of Corazon de la Fuente deep in poverty and still emotionally raw from the memories of violence. Robert Hough evokes a real sense of place when he describes the unrelenting blistering heat of the day & the dustiness of the town. One day their fortunes appear to change as the local Mayor makes a deal with (unbeknownst to him) an American con-man named Dr. Brinkley to build the largest radio tower ever, just behind the local whorehouse.

Dr. Brinkley claims to have conquered the problem of male impotence by replacing human testicles with those of a goat. He conducts the surgeries from a converted hotel, in a small town in Texas and wants to build the tower in order to advertise his services and reach the largest possible audience. The tower ends up being so large and the signal so strong, that it is rumoured that the signal can reach Alaska.This is a fictional account of an actual event that occurred in the 1930's.

The story mainly focuses on the relationships between a handful of characters and and changes that occur in the town after the tower is built. By all accounts, Dr. Brinkley was not a nice man but in this story, although the tower takes center stage, the man himself is more of a sideline character. The reader can only guess at the depth of his depravity.
Towards the end of the story as you may suspect, undesirables are attracted to the town which leads to heavy fighting, reminiscent of the Revolution. The most respected men of the town must act if they are to save their beloved town.

I enjoyed the begining of book with decriptions of the town & its people but towards the with the heavy fighting, I was eager for the author to wrap up the story. It was an interesting story for the most part. Prior to reading this book, I had never heard of Dr. Brinkley. While I enjoyed reading about the romances, marriages & friendships between the five most respected men in town, I would have given this book a higher rating if we had been able to learn more about Dr, Brinkley himself. The story plays more like a regular romantic drama than a real piece of historical fiction. This story was so important to the communications history of the US, that they enacted the Brinkley Act, named after Dr. Brinkley.

… (más)