Reviews

Hangman's Point by Dean Barrett

rosseroo's review

4.0

This monster of a historical adventure takes 1857 Hong Kong as its venue, and places an American tavern-manager/adventurer at the center. Like George Fraser's rogue Flashman (from the series of the same name and set roughly the same era), Andrew Adams is prone to making unwise decisions, and usually has several women on the side. The story is a complicated one, involving a nefarious plot by an English pirate lord to try and take the port of Hong Kong while the bulk of the British force is away shelling Canton, and an unrelated, but simultaneous plot to poison the entire foreign population. There are load and loads of characters, from all classes and parts of society, and Barrett succeeds in making each indelible. The books flags at times, but Barrett is mostly successful in juggling all the plots and players while dishing out loads and loads of daily life detail on his setting. It's a quite impressive--if slightly old-fashioned--historical entertainment. One small annoyance is the fluctuating spelling of one of the main villain's names. A much greater annoyance is the lack of any kind of map!