The English Monster, Shepherd - B-

                                          This is a very well done entertaining novel that links together two disparate stories: England's two-and-a-half century leadership of the slave trade and some frightful murders in the East End in 1811.  However, it's not that black and white, as the monster is (I think) an allegory for the slave trade.  Slavery has been an integral part of man's history.  The trans-Atlantic trade was massive in scale and coincided with Europe's conquest of the Americas.  The English heroes John Hawkyns and Francis Drake partook in it in a ship owned by good Queen Bess.  The author contends that it was the source of profits that grew the empire from a 17th century wannabe to the 19th century master of the universe.  The most descriptive sections of the book, however, are those that deal with the expansion of London, its docks and its trade east of the city and further into the Thames estuary.  He almost has Dickens' touch as he describes the blending of earth and sea east of London.