Captain in Calico

July 13, 2015
Set in the early 18th century, this energetic tale of piracy and peril, a previously unpublished early novel by the late author of the Flashman series, opens as real-life pirate captain and outlaw John “Calico Jack” Rackham makes a midnight visit to real-life Bahamas governor Woodes Rogers. Rackham wants a King’s pardon in order to reclaim his former fiancée, Kate Sampson, who he has learned remains unmarried. The governor offers the amnesty Rackham seeks in exchange for the pirate’s gold, but moments after the pardon is granted, Rackham discovers that Kate is Rogers’s fiancée. An enraged Rackham later meets unconventional Anne Bonney, also a historical figure, who proposes that they raid one of Rogers’s treasure-filled ships. Rackham is too seduced by thoughts of revenge, riches, and Anne’s own charms to refuse. Fans expecting Flashman’s roguish wit and flamboyance will be disappointed, but the book satisfies as a suspenseful though traditional nautical thriller and a glimpse into Fraser’s development as a writer. Agent: Jane Gelfman, Gelfman Schneider/ICM Partners.

July 1, 2015
Fraser, creator of the lovable British army rogue Harry Flashman (Flashman on the March, 2005, etc.), died in 2008. This previously unpublished first novel, featuring a swashbuckling pirate captain called Calico Jack, was discovered by his children after his death. Capt. Jack Rackham arrives on the page fearless and fully formed, slipping into the Governor's House in New Providence, Bahamas, seeking a pardon from Gov. Woodes Rogers. At that time, crown pardons could transform pirates into privateers who would then seek treasure-laden Spanish ships to enrich both themselves and the king's treasury. Jack wants respectability-and Kate Sampson, a planter's daughter he was engaged to marry several years earlier. Bad luck, for Kate has become the governor's betrothed. Rogers grants the pardon, but he's duplicitous, and his trickery doesn't end with inveigling a French blackguard to challenge Jack to a duel. Wounded, Jack is nursed back to health by Anne Bonney, a captivating redhead married to a depraved planter. Through her, Jack learns the governor plans to ship captured Spanish treasure to England. Revenge and riches lure Jack, with Anne tagging along, back to pirate life. This early work, a decent yarn in itself, shows flashes of Fraser's more famous novels, right down to antiquarian words like "langrel," "baldrick," and "argosy" and common words like "filibuster" returned to historical context. Jack's all Errol Flynn in Captain Blood, and Anne ricochets from poor waif to abused wife to a "sadistic, feral" opportunist with "a streak of madness in her nature." Secondary players are appealingly sketched, and Fraser's plot, action scenes, and narrative logic show signs of the accomplished adventure writer he would become. An entertaining story laced with historical references but unlikely to influence Fraser's reputation for good or ill.

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August 1, 2015
Before you Flashman fans get too excited, you need to know some backstory: this isn't a previously unknown Flashman novel; it was, in fact, Fraser's first stab at book-length fiction, and it was rejected by several publishers, probably for good reason (as acknowledged in the foreword by Fraser's three children, who discovered the manuscript among their father's papers after his death in 2008). If you were to approach this fictionalized version of the life of Captain John Rackham, an eighteenth-century pirate and all-around colorful character, simply as a novel, you'd probably find its characters are thin, its writing a bit too clumsy, and its story a tad unfocused. But, if you look at the book as an early story by the universally loved and praised storyteller who gave the world Flashman, you'll find much to enjoy. Rackham isn't Flashman, but he's cut from the same cloth, and although the tone is uneven, there are moments where Fraser's impish wit, which made the Flashman novels so enjoyable, shines through. For the author's fans, this is required reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)