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

[Dave Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cruising through Thatcher's Middle Passage

I have taken it upon myself to re-read the trilogy of Thatcher: the unauthorized biography of Blackbeard the pirate written by me and my lovely wife Penelope.

When tackling historical fiction, writers have to do all they can to not allow true historical characters to serve as cardboard cutouts for your main characters. I think we did a pretty good job of creating plausible interactions with both major and minor persons in history. I think that comes down to good research. As well as reading every book we could put our hands on pertaining to the people and places of the time, in Chronicle Two, we specifically focused on the era of the War of Spanish Succession aka, Queen Anne's War, which saw England rise from a second rate power to one of the most powerful empires ever. From their victory, England obtained amazing power in all of world's colonized regions, particularly the Americas. But despite the significance of the war, researched prior to Wikipedia and with few colonial documents available on line, much of what we discovered came from combing colonial documents, particularly those pertaining to the Carolinas and Virginia.

There were few books on the war and none detailing the lives of the rank and file sailor and their miserable existence between decks. What war and deprivation made were hard men with the capacity to suffer disdainful of authority and holding little patriotic fervor for the nations who pressed them into service for years, abandoned them on thousands of islands cheating them out of wages and forbidding them to raid former enemies. You could not create a more ideal breeding ground for pirates, smugglers, mercenaries and revolutionaries. Which was the reality of the colonized places of the world, again, particularly the Americas.

Since writing Thatcher, the internet has made many more resources accessible allowing me to fill in blanks that required invention for lack of facts. To my pleasant surprise, many of my guesses have turned out to be extremely close to fact. But there are still a few holes and flimsy bridges that keep me from giving the work five stars. I know where they are but I'm not telling.

So, through the first two chronicles, nearly 1000 pages and about a half million words, I can proudly say the middle passage is a good journey.

Oh, and wait until you get to Chronicle Three!

[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.