Thatcher: the unauthorized biography of Blackbeard the pirate: Chronicle Two - The Duke of Bristol

Thatcher: The unauthorized biography of Blackbeard the pirate #2

by David W. Carroll, Penelope W. Carroll

For eighteen months, one man terrorized America, bringing commerce and a superpower to its knees, raging onto the scene and disappearing as mysteriously as he appeared, yet no one knew who he was except for the moniker ... Blackbeard.

Until now.

Thatcher: The Unauthorized Biography of Blackbeard the Pirate is a trilogy that weaves the acknowledged facts of Blackbeard's life into the historic machinations that led to today's world. These novels shatter any foregone conclusion for anyone who thinks he knows the story of Blackbeard. The incidences surrounding his death, the colonial hostilities it created and the iron fist employed by King George to control them began a sixty-year process that eventually led to the American Revolution, giving credence to the cliché that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

Chronicle Two sees Thatcher and Caesar Edwards, privateers and Caribbean raconteurs, back in their home of Bristol, England, with the ambition of revitalizing the family brothel. Working to capitalize on their hard won commercial skills honed during Queen Anne's war, the brothers find past resentments still run deep. As all hope of respectability slips from their grasp, they return to the waters of the New World where they reach the ultimate conclusion that their fates reside in the world's second oldest profession: thievery.

589 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 20, 2013

Reviews

[Reidr Daniels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weaving together the tale of Blackbeard, the legendary pirate, requires a particular mastery…of the facts, the fiction, the historical era, and the many famous and infamous characters with whom he crossed paths and swords. All but the last few years of his pirating life are virtually unknown. But Carroll’s extensive research has yielded a highly plausible story of a much-storied man. Not since Patrick O’Brian, author of the ‘Aubrey & Maturin’ series (more commonly known as ‘Master & Commander’), has anyone captured the true feel of the times in seafaring novels quite like Carroll. In this second novel of Carroll’s trilogy, young Thatcher Edwards leaves Bristol to make a life for himself on the high seas and along the southeast coast of the Americas. Wielding his intelligence, insight, business savvy and thirst for winning, he turns acquaintances into allies or enemies, but nothing in between, and sets the stage for what we know is the most vivid ending in pirate lore.