Showing Port Royal: A Novel by Horane Smith

By the end of the 17th century, Port Royal, Jamaica, had not only become the most prosperous city in the Caribbean, owing to the fortunes brought in by wealthy Europeans, but had been coined "the wickedest city on Earth." The riches brought to Port Royal's already-thriving economy turned the city into a den of thieves, gamblers, murderers, drunkards, and whoremongers. Luke Mackay, a young Englishman, sets sail from England to seek his own fortune in Port Royal. Before he even reaches land, he faces the wrath of pirates, among them the infamous buccaneer Sir Henry Morgan. On land, he discovers another evil-slave trading-which had become the city's economic lifeline. Driven by conscience rather than greed, he begins a one-man battle to overthrow the city's oligarchies and in turn, re-establish a sense of order in his own life.

In Port Royal, Horane Smith offers more than just an exotic tale of piracy and seafaring adventure: he turns the page to an era when human liberty was not a self-declared right; when personal gain superceded morality; when trust and loyalty was deeply-rooted in fear. Here is a novel that may remind us how little humanity has progressed.