Took too long to get to the crux of the story. Started to get better once you are told the motive

“The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know” This was a fascinating spin on Arthur Conan Doyle. Mycroft, the brother you love to hate, a representative of Victoria’s War Department, gets into the middle of the gasping end of the Triangle Trade centered on the islands of Trinidad and surrounds, focusing on the greed of those who still went after slaves [“indentured”] in hopes to line their pockets in the beginnings of oil exploration. Mycroft IMHO has often been presented as supercilious and a braggart, but here he’s taken down a peg or to by choices he makes and stands by as his close friend Cyrus Douglas and he try to figure out the strange goings-on with Mycroft’s fiance and her false life. I actually felt BADLY for him towards the end of the story as he became much more “human” in the eyes of this author. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar takes time to educate about the slave trade and those who were active as well as complacent in it’s historical reach. And, with the last third of the book focused on this history, the original mystery gets lost in the pages. I’d looked forward to reading this for years after seeing the author talk about it on Jeopardy, and will read others in the series, but I can only give it a 4 star recommendation. 4/4

Excellent book especially if you’ve read Arthur Conan Doyle.

Excellent reading, pleasantly surprised, ordered two more of Mr. Kareem books, can't wait to get started reading! I hope he keeps writing!