Easton's Gold

R. Gordon Moyles is professor emeritus of English at the University of
Alberta. He is co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities:
British Views of Canada, 1880–1914, author of The Salvation Army and
the Public, and editor of “Improved by Cult

This sequel to Butler’s spellbinding thriller Easton finds the
notorious pirate back in London in 1640, old, bedridden, and plagued by
guilt. Nursed back to health by his faithful “gypsy” attendant,
Gabrielle, and by the mysterious apothecary Fleet, Easton decides he
must return to Newfoundland to find his “half-breed” son and restore
to him his rightful inheritance. The trip is undertaken and therewith
unfolds a plot in which revenge, false expectations, revelations of
hidden identities, and finally murder are the order of things. To say
more than that would be to dispel the excitement of the book, and, above
all, it is exciting.

Butler is an invigorating writer, keeping the reader in suspense, but
moving the story along at an exhilarating pace. Furthermore, he provides
a substantial background to his story, and is meticulous in his
re-creation of time and place, especially of shipboard space. And
finally, Butler is a fine stylist, one who knows how to provide apt
images that vivify thought and action. This is a novel, though one might
call it a thriller, that is well worth reading.