Monsoon - Wilbur Smith

~ ~ As a teenager I remember devouring the novels of author Wilbur Smith and his chronicles of the adventuresome and ambitious Courtney family throughout the different generations as they battled and schemed to establish their commercial empire in Africa. Books such as “When the Lion Feeds” and “The Sound Of Thunder” were true epics set in the Dark Continent, and enthralled and captivated my young imagination. ~ ~ But I sort of “outgrew” Smith as I got older, and he wasn’t an author I would rush to when perusing the shelves of a bookshop. But while in holiday in Tuscany last summer, I ran out of reading ...

As a long time devotee of Wilbur Smith novels I was a little wary when he switched periods from the 19th - 20th century to the 17th century. However I need not have worried as he has obviously developed a marvellous feel for the upheaval of those times. Anyway on to the book….. Monsoon continues on from its predecessor (Birds of Prey) and yet again the Courtney family make up the main cast of central characters. They are presented as one of the great seafaring families of English society making their fortune by raiding the shipping routes of their country’s enemies under letters of marque (basically a licence for piracy) and by trade. ...

The story of Monsoon goes like this: Near the end of the seventeenth century, any Englishman who makes part or all of his fortune in Africa or Arabia, knows not to trust anyone but family to protect the holdings. Sir Hal Courtney realizes that so he sets a plan in motion to protect what he and his family already own and to make an even greater fortune. His oldest son stays behind in England to manage the vast landholdings. His other three boys accompany him on his seemingly hopeless quest for an inordinate size treasure. However, more likely, Hal and his four children will face death, betrayal, and dishonor as the sibling rivalry is so fierce that nothing, ...