The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder, Grann - A*

                      In 1740, in the midst of a war with Spain, England sent 5 ships around the Horn to plunder Spanish galleons in pursuit of silver.  The HMS Wager was a converted East Indiaman and packed with 250 men, twice its normal complement. The ship's captain was George Murray, and she "had an unusual number of unwilling and troublesome crewmen..."  After two months and in the mid-Atlantic, the fleet was struck by typhus and 65 members of the squadron were interred at sea. Another 80 were buried at St. Catherine's, Brazil. David Cheap took over as captain when Murray was transferred to replace a captain who had died. The deceased captain  predicted that the expedition "would end in poverty, vermin, famine, death and destruction." To round the Cape, a ship passing through Drake's Passage sails through the strongest currents in the world's oceans.  The winds are ferocious, the seas are shallow, and the waves monstrously high. The area is almost always shrouded in fog. Scurvy struck while they were rounding the Cape.  Two of the ships suffered fifty-percent casualties. Three, including the Wager, lost sails and masts. Eventually, the winds scattered the squadron and the Wager was alone. She sailed north and foundered on the rocks off an island off the South American coast. One-hundred and forty-five men made it ashore, and discovered they were on an island with little food and shelter. They used the remnants of the ship to build shelters, and the wild celery they found cured them of scurvy. But they were quickly running low on provisions and winter was approaching. Discipline and order deteriorated, and Capt. Cheap began to have thieves flogged and abandoned on an off-shore island. Cheap then shot a drunk threatening the peace of the compound. The ship's carpenter began to lengthen, widen, and rebuild the ship's longboat, thus leading to a revival of the company's spirits. Soon, though there was a division amongst the men. Cheap wanted to head north and attack the Spanish. A contingent led by the ship's gunner, John Bulkeley, wanted to try for Brazil via the Straits of Magellan. As both sides dithered, the survivors dropped below 100. In October, 1741, 71 men squeezed into 2 boats and left the island, which they had christened Wager. Cheap was one of the 20 men left behind. Two weeks into their sail, the cutter with only one man aboard slipped under the waves. Eleven men asked to be left on a shore they passed and swam away. They were never seen again. Bulkeley and his men entered the Straits of Magellan. Cheap with two boats and 18 men headed for the Chilean coast. After months of trying, they returned to Wager Island. Bulkeley navigated his way through the Straits and turned north in the Atlantic. A total of 29 men stumbled into the town of Rio Grande in southern Brazil eight months after the Wager had sunk. When Bulkeley returned to England, the Admiralty decided to wait and see if Cheap survived before passing judgement on all that had happened. Bulkeley and the ship's carpenter, Cummins, published a journal that was widely read, and garnered them support from the public. Meanwhile off the coast of the Philippines, the only surviving ship of the squadron, the Centurion, chased down a Spanish treasure ship, Our Lady of Covadonga. After 90 minutes of intense battle, the Spaniards struck their flag. As it turned out, the Covadonga was the richest prize England ever took at sea. A year later, Adm. George Anson returned home to the acclaim of the nation. Ordinary seaman received 300 pounds, twenty years of wages. Anson received ninety thousand, the equivalent of 20 million today. Two years later, Cheap arrived in Dover. He was accompanied by a marine lieutenant, and a midshipman, John Byron, second son of a Lord, and grandfather of the famous poet. The three men had been captured and imprisoned by the Spanish. They were paroled in Chile and allowed to go home when hostilities ended between the two countries. The Admiralty called for a court martial and summoned all of the Wager's survivors to appear. Bulkeley and three others were imprisoned. The Admiralty, however, had no desire to air the facts of the Wager's story in public, and simply concluded that no officer was at fault for the ship's foundering. 

                    Capt. Cheap was assigned another command and performed well capturing a Spanish ship loaded with silver. Bulkeley went to America and faded from history.  John Byron was a career navy man who eventually became a Vice-Admiral. Later in life, he wrote a narrative condemning Cheap's leadership. George Anson was for decades the most famous and successful man in the Royal Navy. Wager Island remains a place of desolation battered by waves and wind. A special thanks to David Gutowski for urging me to read this truly excellent book.

The Collector, DaSilva - B

                      Gabriel has been happily retired for six months, and living in Venice, where he works as a fine art restorer. He is approached by the Carabinieri and asked to help find a stolen Vermeer. As he lives in Italy at the government's sufferance, he obliges. He traces the painting and the theft to a woman in Denmark, Ingrid Johansen. However, as he is talking to her, a Moscow-based hitman makes an attempt on her life, and Gabriel realizes that there is more here than simple theft. He returns to King Saul Boulevard, ascertains that there is a tie in to South Africa's old nuclear program and a wealthy Dane with connections to Moscow. He puts his old team back together and heads back to Copenhagen. They confront the Dane, Magnus Larsen, who acknowledges that he is completely beholden to the Russians, who caught him in a honey trap 20 years ago. After consulting with Langley, Gabriel decides to use Larsen and Johansen to grab a piece of critical intelligence on Russia's plans to use a false flag operation in Ukraine to justify the use of tactical nukes. They pull it off, but wind up in a shoot out at the Finnish border. Another Allon masterpiece.

The Missing American, Quartey - B

                     This novel is set in Accra, Ghana, and features Emma Djan, a private investigator. She and her boss are hired by a young American to find his dad.  Gordon Tilson had been in Ghana decades before in the Peace Corps, and returned to America with his Ghanian bride. In a lonely state of mind after his wife's death, he falls for a Ghanian woman on line. When he goes to Accra, he ascertains that he has been scammed. Trying to find out who is behind it proves incredibly frustrating, as the police and other government officials are all part of the corruption behind on-line scamming. He seeks out to find those who had tricked him and disappears from sight. A month later, two fishermen pull his body from the Volta River. As the detective agency was hired to find Gordon, the case is over, but Emma can't let go. She continues looking into the 'sakawa boys' running the con jobs until she is threatened by the mob, and they eventually make an attempt on her life. A call placed to the police saves her life. Emma helps bring to justice the higher ups who support the criminal system. This is a very interesting tale about a place that is overwhelmed by corruption.

A Godly Hero: The Life Of William Jennings Bryan, Kazin -B

                     The man known as "The Great Commoner" believed in Jesus, and Thomas Jefferson. The Sage of Monticello was admired because of his belief in the wisdom of the people, and his advocacy of equal rights. Indeed, the only book Bryan believed to be more important than the Jefferson Cyclopedia was the Bible. "Bryan was the first leader of a major party to argue for permanently expanding the power of the federal government to serve the welfare of ordinary Americans...He preached that the national state should counter the overweening power of banks and industrial corporations by legalizing strikes, subsidizing farmers, taxing the rich, banning private campaign spending, and outlawing the liquor trust." His strict populist morality based on the scriptures has been rejected since his 1925 death.

                   He was born in 1860 in Salem, Illinois, the son of a successful lawyer. His father Silas was prominent member of the local Democratic Party. He graduated from Whipple Academy and Illinois College. He honed the oratorical skills that would later make him famous. He graduated from Union Law School in Chicago and returned home to Jacksonville, IL to practice. He married Mary Baird who was an invaluable colleague for the rest of his life. In 1887, the young couple moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. His skillful speechmaking on behalf of the Democratic ticket in 1888 attracted the approval of the party. He ran for Congress in 1890. The GOP was facing an agrarian revolt, and that propelled Bryan to victory. He quickly garnered attention and a sterling reputation for his support of tariff reform and bimetallism. In 1894, he failed to obtain Nebraska's senate seat, but rather became the populist Democrats preferred candidate for president.  As an unknown from a state that had never voted Democratic, he had a mountain to climb to achieve the nomination. He toured the country for sixteen months speaking against the gold standard. He arrived at the Chicago convention as a long shot. Bryan is considered one of the greatest orators in US history, and his convention speech was one of his best. His closing sentence brought down the house, and has endured in the history texts for well over a century. "You shall not press down upon the  brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." His speech was twenty minutes; the resulting cheers lasted forty. He was nominated on the fifth ballot. He won the nomination of the populist People's Party, but failed to generate any interest in the big cities of the north and east. He lost to McKinley, but came tantalizingly close.

                  Bryan was a moral crusader whose ideas attracted his faithful on a very personal level. His popularity was such that he made a living traveling around the country speaking to his people. Although he supported the invasion of Cuba, he vigorously opposed the annexation of the Philippines. Opposition to the imperial war of conquest in the Pacific was the only issue that seemed to have any traction as 1900 approached. The economy was strong and the silver issue had lost its impact.  Once again, the GOP outspent the Democrats by a 10:1 ratio, and McKinley won convincingly. "Bryan spent the next four years elaborating his self-image as the independent conscience of moral, insurgent white Americans." He promoted his weekly newspaper 'The Commoner.' In Washington, Roosevelt was now governing aggressively and pursued a progressive agenda that co-opted some of Bryan's signature themes. And at the convention, the conservatives nominated Alton Parker of NY. TR crushed him in November. Bryan headed back on the road and toured the country speaking to the assembled believers at Chautaquas in every state. He worked diligently to obtain the next nomination and had it locked up long before the convention. TR had renounced a third term, and recommended William Taft as his successor. He made labor reform his theme, and received the support of the AFL. The Democrats hope was that this would give him a chance in the big states of the north and midwest. Taft simply promised to continue TR's policies and won decisively.

                Retired from electoral politics, he turned to his new role as "moral scourge" of the nation. Notwithstanding the fact that Prohibition was driven by Republicans, it was also a core belief of rural Protestants, and Bryan supported it too. In 1912, he watched as Wilson won the White House because TR's insurgency tore apart the GOP. His support for Wilson led to his taking up the reins at the State Dept. However, his"tenure in the highest appointive office in the land, which presented  a great opportunity to do good in the world, instead began his political decline." He was unpopular with the eastern establishment press, which, among other things, derided his choice of grape juice and water as the preferred libations for events he hosted. His pacifist beliefs led him to criticize the war in Europe and to support a strict US neutrality. However, American businesses were selling vast amounts of goods to the Allies, Wall Street was lending them money and Wilson was appalled by Germany's conduct. Wilson condemned Germany for the sinking of the Lusitania without addressing the UK's embargo of the continent, which Bryan felt was equally to blame for the violence on the high seas. He resigned in June, 1915.

               The following year, he campaigned for Wilson's re-election and is believed to have helped to put him over the top in a very close election. After the US entry into the war, he offered his support to the president, and later spoke for the ratification of the Versailles Treaty. In the new decade, the aging and ailing orator returned to the road, preaching and traveling and was once again the focus of far-reaching press coverage. He supported women's suffrage and urged legislation to eliminate all gender discrimination. He feared the impact of Darwinism on the young would lead to immorality, and began to speak against evolution. The final act of his long career was the Scopes Trial in Dayton, TN in 1925. Local boosters drummed up the trial to support tourism, but it soon grew to be an international event, with both sides putting intellectual giants on a collision course. He was confused by Darrow, and ridiculed in the northern press. He died a few days after the trial's conclusion.

               History has not been kind to Bryan. Noted Baltimore newspaperman H. L. Mencken savaged him during the trial and after his death. Historian Richard Hofstadter echoed his distaste a generation later, and those opinions dominated the history books. They all seem to have forgotten he drew millions and millions of ordinary people to a populist cause and forever changed the way politicians campaign for higher office. I'm intrigued by his valiant efforts on behalf of the poor, and put off by his overly religious preaching. An intriguing man in a fascinating time, and a very boring book.

                    

All The Sinners Bleed, Cosby - B+

                      This near-perfect novel features Sheriff Titus Crown, a Black man who returns to Charon County after an education at UVA and Columbia, and a decade in the FBI. The county on the Virginia coast is majority Black, but still living in the throes of its white supremacist past. Everywhere Titus turns, he runs up against the inherent prejudices of the south. His department is called out for a shooting at the local high school. There are two casualties, a beloved white teacher who had been there for thirty years and the troubled younger man of color who shot him. An examination of their phones and computers show that the two had been involved for over a decade in a pedophile murder ring that shocks Titus to the bone. The evidence reveals that there was a third man, outfitted in a wolf mask, also involved. The department begins the hunt for victims and the third murderer. As they pursue the killer, he strikes back at anyone who may know who he is and at people close to Titus. The finale is a nail biter, but one with a good ending. This book is a brilliant treatise on being a Black man in the south. Highly recommended.

Dead Man's Wake, Doiron - B+

                     Mike and Stacey's engagement party at his stepfather's house on an exclusive lake in Maine is interrupted by a loud crash out on the water. Mike heads for the scene where he dives into the lake and locates a corpse that is soon identified as Kip Whitcomb. Various police agencies are soon involved and the next morning they raise the body of the younger woman he had been skinny-dippping with. Gina Randazza had been strangled. Immediate suspicion fell on Gina's husband, but he had a bona-fide alibi. Mike finds the boat that killed Whitcomb, but the two recent college grads who were in it point to each other as the driver. However,  the accident didn't kill Whitcomb, as he was already dead when the boat hit him, and he certainly didn't kill Gina.  The murderer is caught by Mike after he sabotaged of a Cessna  Mike was flying in with Stacey.  I came upon this series a year-and-a-half ago and find it gets better with age.

 

The Wintering Place, McCarthy - B+

                      We pick up the story from "Wolves of Eden" with Tom and Sara leaving Ft. Phil Kearney just after the Fetterman Massacre, and finding a wounded Michael on the battlefield. They collect him and head west. As deserters, they know the army will punish them if they are ever found. A winter storm traps them while Michael is slowly recovering. They reluctantly share their campfire with two trappers. The trappers are evil men and they manage to kill the leader before they are killed. His quiet companion, Dillard, gets away. Starving, freezing, and battling the elements, the three of them settle down when they realize Tom has frostbitten toes. Michael cuts off two of his brother's toes while Sara holds him through the pain. They use the trapper's pelts to trade with two young Crow warriors for food, tobacco, and a horse. They travel two days west again to trade with some white men and then return to their cave camp. As the spring of 1867 approaches in Montana Territory, they leave their winter camp as the nearby river rises and move on with a peaceful prospector, Whitsable, to where he regularly pans for gold. They enjoy the work, the tobacco, whiskey, and all of the food that Sara prepares. By the standard of their lives, it's almost idyllic. Tom and Whitsable head to a trading post where they see Dillard. Dillard gets a few men to help him attack Tom, but they are drunk and Tom had  spent four years fighting in the war. He kills them all and hightails it out of town. The local vigilantes pull Whitsable from his bed and dispatch him. Tom, Michael and Sara leave their camp and head west again. They are now wanted for desertion and murder.

                     These two books, along with 'Ridgeline' and 'The Revenant' are four exceptional westerns that relate the sheer randomness of life on the plains in the 19th century. Great stories.

Black Ball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywood, and the Generation That Saved The Soul of the NBA, Runstedtler - D

                     The NBA was founded in 1949. It "controlled" the slow integration of Black players into the league. Into the 60's, it remained a white league with a growing Black labor force. As players of color advocated for greater freedom and rights, America's tilt to 'law and order' created an environment that blamed Black athletes for violence and drug usage in the league, leading to the downward spiral of the league's popularity in the late 1970's. The author, a black scholar and woman, posits that those players of the 70's actually set the groundwork for the massive popularity that followed.

                    The initial crack in the NBA's dominance of its workforce came when Connie Hawkins filed the first anti-trust suit ever against an American sports league. His suit coincided with the establishment of the ABA, which threatened the league by poaching one of its biggest stars, Rick Barry. The NBA offered Hawkins a generous settlement in 1969. That same year, Spencer Haywood left after two years of college and joined the ABA's Denver Rockets as a nineteen year old rookie. In his first season, he won both Rookie of the Year and MVP. He jumped to the Sonics in the NBA because their owner flouted the 'four year rule.' Litigation followed, the courts struck down the rule, and Heywood went on to play for Seattle.  Lew Alcindor "was unapologetically Black" and did not seek the approval of the league's white writers and fan base. He changed his religion and his name, becoming the second famous Black athlete to do so. Although Kareem played a traditional game, players like Earl Monroe and Julius Erving were revolutionizing basketball by bringing "playground moves" to the court. The free flowing ABA became known as a "Black league." The 1970's were a time of white fans' disapproval of Blacks, disappointment in Black coaches' intellects, and systemic racism that saw the Commissioner's request to be succeeded by his Black colleague dismissed by the owners. Kermit Washington's historic punch that shattered Rudy Tomjanovich's face was symptomatic of the league's degeneracy. A bad tv contract with CBS, the former ABA teams struggling with the NBA's entry fee after the merger, a raft of much younger players, and a perception of rampant drug use really hurt the leagues popularity in the later part of the decade. Cocaine use was highlighted by Bernard King's multiple arrests and the Spencer Haywood's dismissal from the league.

                  The NBA's legendary turnaround began with Bird and Magic, changes in the CBA that allowed the commissioner more authority to discipline players, and the addition of a salary cap. Revenue sharing with the players and drug testing became part of the league. With David Stern, the league now had a very savvy salesman at the top. Michael Jordan, along with Nike, became the epitome of Black athleticism and coolness.

                I found the narrative disjointed and not at all convincing. There is no mention of the fact that the 1977, 1978, and 1979 champs were from small market teams without a national following. When discussing Larry Bird's role as the the great white hope, the author says Boston's fans were reminded of and longed for the good old days. The good old days were 11 titles because of one of the most outspoken Black men in American sports history. Ours was, and is, a society struggling with race, but the NBA I remember adored Bill Russell. The New York I came of age in placed the captain, Willis Reed, on a permanent pedestal and glorified Clyde Frazier. Yes, many sportswriters were racist fools focusing on people's Afros, but many, many more loved the high-flying Dr. J. The owners were penny-pinching zealots, but it wasn't a matter of race. A cursory review of the history of the MLB and NFL shows rampant mean-spirited, often vicious labor practices when all of the athletes were white ethnic immigrants and poor farm boys. Case dismissed.