博客來Redemption Time is the enthralling story of a 16-year-old boy, William Carpenter, from a reasonably privileged family who is told by his father that the family has been hit by a major financial disaster. The family home and land will have to be sold and he will have to leave his public school as his father can no longer afford to pay the fees. In other words, they are ’bust’.
What he does, having delved into the family archives and history, forms the essence of the story taking him, as a deckhand, on a banana boat to the West Indies. There, on the island of Barbados, on a chance meeting on shore leave with a businessman, he discovers that his ancestor of 200 years ago who he knew had spent time there, had been one of the first and most successful sugar planters. It was this ancestor who had made the family fortune, now dissipated by his heirs and successors. On the island, his ancestor’s name is still a legend.
On the banana boat, his deckhand duties catches the eye of a passenger, a self-made businessman and his wife taking a leisurely cruise as part of a recovery programme from a heart attack. He mentions to Will to contact him should he ever feel in need of a change or advice in the future. After more voyages on the ship, Will decides that the time to change has come and contacts his man, Mr Mallory. The offshoot is that Mallory offers him a job but that is all. The rest, he says ＂Is up to you＂
Will’s progress up the ladder to assistant manager of one of the leading branches of the firm, to, a couple of years later, to be appointed to start up a new branch of the business in Ireland, follows.
What happens in Ireland - the ups, downs and pitfalls of starting a new business, together with his childhood knowledge and skill of riding a horse, stands him in good stead with the locals and takes his love life to a new level.
The prospect of a return to his Caribbean island, Barbados dawns and the discovery of an underworld criminal enterprise. What happens if the dream turns into reality or not forms the ultimate climax as to whether his original decision to take the job as a deckhand was a good or bad idea.
