David Chacko and Alexander Kulcsar have followed up their well-received novel Gone Over with The Brimstone Papers, a second story featuring the same character. This man, Israel Potter, was also
the subject of a Herman Melville novel, Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile. Surprisingly, The Brimstone Papers, a continuation and prequel, is no less compelling than Gone Over or Melville's novel.
The Brimstone Papers tells the story of Potter's early years and the events that precede his arrival
in England as a prisoner. In doing so, the novel focuses on the first year of
the Revolutionary War and the hectic action that takes place in New England
from the spring to the deep winter of 1775. That includes the furor
accompanying the Lexington Alarm—particularly uproarious in Potter's native Rhode Island—and two months later, the bloody Battle of Bunker Hill.
The account of that battle by Chacko, the author of eighteen novels, and
Kulcsar, an actor and director, has all the makings of a classic. Seen from
every possible angle on both sides of the torrid action, including that of
General William Howe, who led the British assault up the hill, the battle has
the scope and intensity that match the escalating ferocity of the encounter.
Seldom has eighteenth century warfare been so well realized.
The stalemate that prevails after Bunker Hill is countered when Potter goes down
to Plymouth, where he helps outfit and sail a privateer against the enemy ships
that must make their way into Boston. This happens, though, in way that no
reader will anticipate, as Potter becomes entangled in his own past and the
pasts and present of the men around him.
The brigantine Washington, named for the general who takes command of the American forces, will become
the most famous prize that the British Navy captures during the war. The Washington's men will be prizes, too, after suffering in ways for which they set the
standard. On that ominous note, The Brimstone Papers concludes with the lead-in to the historical spy novel, Gone Over.
