Showboat Soubrette by Brodie Curtis
The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour
Showboat Soubrette by Brodie Curtis
Today on the blog is what looks like a fun American historical fiction novel, Showboat Soubrette by Brodie Curtis. The author has kindly provided an excerpt (see below) as well as the book description and bio.
Book Description
FROM STAR SHOWBOAT SINGER TO PIRATE PREY ON THE WICKED RIVER!
Showboat singer Stella Parrot’s star rises in the Antebellum South with every sold-out performance along the lower Mississippi River. When a river pirate viciously assaults her, new friends Toby Freeman and John Dee Franklin foil the attack. However, the pirate’s family is bent on revenge.
Stella, Toby, and John Dee escape their riverboat with able assistance from young cub pilot Sam Clemens, only to be pursued by the notorious Burton Gang. As the trio runs for their lives, mortal perils await at every turn: a fierce storm, high-stakes gambling confrontations, deadly combat, and a cotton boat up in flames. Stella, a Cherokee Indian, and Toby, a free Black man, and their friend White man John Dee endure relentless racial prejudices and injustices in the gritty underbelly of the Wicked River while fleeing to New Orleans—where the Burtons will be waiting!
SHOWBOAT SOUBRETTE’s fast-paced lower river adventure chase features romantic showboat scenes and is unsparing in its exploration of the bigoted and sometimes lawless riverboat era.
Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/boPV81
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.
The Excerpt (Number 4 if you’re following the tour)
New Orleans Cemetery
A solitary caw broke the silence. John Dee’s gut tightened with wariness. The tortured soul of a cemetery resident presiding in the form of a black crow? Or a warning?
The moon hung over St. Louis Cemetery like a rich planter’s silver platter. John Dee led Toby down a gravel path, the crunch of their boots the only sound. They wove through sections of illuminated crypts with surnames of past generations. Some in French—Archambeau, Barbier, Fournier. Some Creole—Boudreaux, Thibodeaux. The vaults varied in height from quite low to peaked and featured an incongruous mix of stones of all shades and sizes, bricks, and iron—all lifted over the flood line to keep inhabitants sealed within dry.
Not until Toby’s boot hit the back of his calf did John Dee notice he’d slowed to a snail’s pace.
“Scared of the spirits, are you?” Toby asked with a snicker.
“Christ.” John Dee narrowed his eyes, but the tightly packed ghostly residences spawned dark, shadowy places untouched by the light of the moon. The unnatural quiet raised the hair on the back of his neck. “Come on.”
He turned right at a bricked, pyramid-shaped crypt surrounded by spike-topped iron fencing.
John Dee held his Colt in his right hand, close to his chest. Just what the hell are we doing here? This was a fool’s errand. A task of soon-to-be-dead fools. Cliff Burton and his men were, without a doubt, lying in wait. But neither of them could cotton sitting around to wait for Burton to start delivering Stella’s appendages. Because the evil bastard sure as hell would make good on his threat.
The God’s honest truth was no way in hell John Dee would desert Stella. But why? Sure, she was a looker and fired his loins, but so had plenty of other women. And he’d moved on from every one of them. Gotten his fill and gone back to the river and more business and adventure with Toby.
Something about Stella stirred his soul. It had happened on the Lady J’s top deck when they landed at Friars Point. When she opened her mouth to sing. In those magical moments in her bed before the fire.
He couldn’t turn his back on what was building between them. If he did, a big piece of his heart would die. Even more than that, Stella was a good soul and sure as hell didn’t deserve what Cliff Burton had done to her.
Between the crypts were shadowy patches of gray and blackness. Potential hiding places at every corner. John Dee’s neck hair stood on end. Mortal danger was out there. But where?
What did the old man say? Turn left at the Aubert crypt and it be at the end of the section. Lafon’s tomb was said to be a solid stone monstrosity with several levels of pull-out chambers towering over its ghostly neighbors.
A snap brought John Dee up short.
He and Toby raised their Colts.
“What is it?” Toby whispered.
“Quiet.”
No other sound.
“Bastards are hiding among the ghosts,” Toby whispered.
“Yeah. Come on. It’s just a little way.”
John Dee took a tentative step. Then another. Just moonlit stone death homes on either side of the path, and he couldn’t see anything between them. Perfect for an ambush. His and Toby’s Colts pointed ineffectively into the darkness.
Author Bio
Brodie Curtis Author
Raised in the Midwest, Brodie Curtis was educated as a lawyer and left the corporate world to embrace life in Colorado with his wife and two sons.
Curtis is the author of THE FOUR BELLS, a novel of The Great War, which is the product of extensive historical research, including long walks through the fields of Flanders, where much of the book's action is set. His second novel, ANGELS AND BANDITS, takes his protagonists into The Battle of Britain. Curtis’ third novel is set on a Mississippi Riverboat prior to the Civil War.
A lover of history, particularly American history and the World Wars, Curtis reviews historical fiction for the Historical Novels Review and more than 100 of his published reviews and short takes on historical novels can be found on his website: brodiecurtis.com.
Author Links:
Website: www.brodiecurtis.com
Twitter / X: https://x.com/BrodieCurtis4
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brodiecurtisauthor/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curtisauthor/
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/brodie-curtis
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Brodie-Curtis/author/B07QSCF8Z1