CBR18 Bingo: Wealth – The hope of massive wealth leads many people, including the main characters, to invest their money in the construction of the Panama Canal, and much of the action is driven by those trying to recoup that investment.
Sisters Darcie and Petra are only two years apart in age, but they go down vastly different paths after a horrible crime turns their lives upside-down. Despite their differences, though, they will both end up deeply involved in the construction of the Panama Canal.
This might be the final boss of violent, dramatic, and utterly bizarre rippers. I was warned, it is true, but things were so intense that half the time I was cringing while I read. The violence (sexual and otherwise) is graphic, the villain is genuinely horrifying, and there’s also a lot (and I mean A LOT) of incest. Like Targaryen levels of incest! The blurb for this book, which only refers to ‘bizarre events’ and ‘dark secrets,’ is rather understating things I think.
But it’s also a well-written book with a strong historical scaffolding, and I learned a lot about the construction of the Panama Canal, which was so riddled with violence and corruption that it works perfectly well as the linchpin of such a bizarre family drama. Though the book is a doorstopper, clocking in at over 600 pages, it is interesting throughout, and the pace never slackens. I never knew what was coming next, but that isn’t to say that the plot lurches gracelessly around.
Darcie and Petra are also compelling heroines, not least for their complex and sometimes amoral characters. And despite the complete craziness of the plot, the romances actually end up standing out as rather sweet.
