Call of the Raven
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4.2 • 130 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A novel by bestselling author Wilbur Smith and the prequel to A Falcon Flies.
'The right of the cat over the mouse, of the strong over the weak. The natural law of existence.' Augustus Mungo St John, A Falcon Flies
The son of a wealthy plantation owner and a doting mother, Augustus Mungo St John is accustomed to the wealth and luxuries his privilege has afforded him. That is until he returns from university to discover his family ruined, his inheritance stolen and his childhood sweetheart, Camilla, taken by the conniving Chester Marion. Fuelled by anger, and love, Mungo swears vengeance and devotes his life to saving Camilla - and destroying Chester.
Camilla, trapped in New Orleans and powerless to her position as a kept slave and Chester's brutish behaviour, must learn to do whatever it takes to survive.
As Mungo battles his own fate and misfortune to achieve the revenge that drives him, and regain his power in the world, he must question what it takes for a man to survive when he has nothing, and what he is willing to do in order to get what he wants.
An action-packed and gripping adventure by bestselling author, Wilbur Smith, about one man's quest for revenge, the brutality of slavery in America and the imbalance between humans that can drive - or defeat - us.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in the early 1840s, this riveting adventure yarn from bestseller Smith (the Courtney family saga) and Addison (A Harvest of Thorns) explores the slave trade. While studying at Cambridge University in England, Mungo St. John, introduced in 1980's A Falcon Flies, receives a letter from Camilla, a slave on his father's Virginia plantation, Windemere, saying that his father is dead. "Come home at once or we will all be lost," she writes. Mungo, his father's only heir, arrives in America to find Windemere in the hands of family attorney Chester Marion, who betrayed the trust of his father and led the elder St. John into bankruptcy. Mungo vows revenge. The stakes rise after Camilla falls into Chester's clutches and Chester falsely accuses Mungo of stealing a slave. Mungo has no choice but to jump bail and join the crew of a merchant ship bound for the slave markets of Africa and Havana. From there he travels to New Orleans and then to Virginia, unswerving in his desire to destroy Chester. As Mungo races from one hair-raising situation to the next, he pulls the reader breathlessly along. Those who like nonstop if melodramatic action will be rewarded.
Customer Reviews
Call of the Raven
Marvelous old timey yarn of pre civil war life on land and sea. Great adventures and plots. Five stars all the way.