A Story of the Original Buccaneers

The Tortuga Plantation by James L. Nelson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


With their camp decimated by a hurricane, Jean-Baptiste LeBoeuf leads his fellow boucaniers to the neighboring island of Tortuga. He neither wants nor asks them to follow him, but his occasional spoken words lead others to agree with him. Since he cannot recover the sunken treasure, he is driven to immigrate because of a letter of patent discovered before the shipwreck sinks. He plans to assume the identity of the owner and take possession of the plantation. Beyond that, his plans are unknown.

Henriette de Labonté accompanies him because she’s safer with him than without, but she has no ties to this silent, impulsive, and giant Frenchman. She has a single goal – to return to France – and the sunken treasure will allow her to do this. It is why she keeps her silence . . . for now.

One other man knows of the gold: Hendrick Van Lauwersoog. A former naval officer, this Dutchman is wily and not one to be trusted. Still, he’s promised to remain silent about the treasure . . . for now.

Don Alonso Menéndez de Aviles has dreams and plans for his new life as lieutenant governor, the second highest ranking official in Santo Domingo. He craves wealth and power but is a novice when it comes to Spain’s New World empire, and those who have come before already have their footholds well established. It doesn’t take long for him to realize who his true enemies are, and a riot and the presence of Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, Captain General of King Philip IV’s Ocean Sea Navy, permit him to lay the groundwork to upend his nemesis, the city’s mayor. This scheming also allows him to set in motion a business strategy that involves the lawless island of Tortuga.

The reader soon learns that nothing and no one are as they seem in this second installment of the Blood, Steel & Empire series. Each has secrets, some of which Nelson slowly reveals at key points in the story at just the right time. In doing so, his characters realize that their pasts are never as buried as they think and what happened then influences what unfolds now.

During the 17th century, the boucaniers of Hispaniola are driven from the island where they hunt wild pigs. Some migrate to Tortuga, but the Spanish are keen on keeping out foreigners from their lands. This eventually pushes these boucaniers into piracy and over time, their name becomes anglicized to buccaneers. Nelson weaves a compelling historical novel that demonstrates how and why this shift occurs. His portrayal is historically accurate and the facts are intricately woven into the story in ways that keep the reader from noticing them. He includes maps of Hispaniola and Tortuga, a ship diagram, and a glossary for readers as well.

Intrigue, betrayal, greed, corruption, murder, and battles both on land and at sea abound. Although fiction, The Tortuga Plantation is steeped in reality; readers who are squeamish about blood and guts may want to pass on this story that vividly recreates the Spanish Caribbean of the early 1600s. This is also a tale of power struggles where circumstances make for strange bedfellows; one day a man may be an ally, the next an enemy. Readers soon realize why LeBoeuf prefers to live one day at a time and fully trusts only his mastiff, Other Dog.


This review originally appeared at Pirates and Privateers (http://www.cindyvallar.com/JLNelson.h...)



View all my reviews