Win an autographed copy of Son of Perdition, Louise Gouge!

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Louise M. Gouge
Paperback: 319 pages
Publisher: River Oak (February 2006)
ISBN: 1589190416

















Reviewed by Jessica Dotta:

In the 19th century where honor and duty are a gentleman's way of life, Timothy Jacob Ahab has reached manhood and must grapple with the legacy left by his father, who doomed a shipful of men in his mad pursuit of a famous white whale. Timothy's struggle to find his place is made no less difficult by the growing popularity of the sole survivor's account, a novel named Moby Dick. Determined to live on his own moral strength, Timothy is given the opportunity of a lifetime to join the Naval Academy on the recommendation of a family friend.

On Nantucket Island, Isaiah Starbuck and his younger sister, Jemima, are also experiencing the aftermath of that fateful voyage. From having lost his father and suffered a life of poverty, Isaiah harbors great hatred toward the wealthy Ahab family. When he is accepted into the Naval Academy on his own merits, he finds a safe-haven for his sister so he can pursue a career that someday will provide for them both. Unwittingly, he places his sister practically on the doorstep of Timothy Ahab, who already has felt the first pangs of love for the girl.

One man rich, the other impoverished, and the country on the brink of civil war, Timothy and Isaiah enter the Academy where a man's worth isn't measured by his past, but by his actions. There, they must finish what began with their fathers on that ill-fated whaling vessel.

In the third book of Ahab's Legacy, Son of Perdition, English Professor Louise M. Gouge yet again brings back the world first brought to life in the pages of Moby Dick, and so deftly does she carry on themes of its precursor, that I have no doubt Herman Melville would heartily cheer her on.

Yet, what is most striking about Gouge's writing is her ability to hold me
spell-bound for hours at a time, leaving behind the mild disappointment one
feels when they start to look for the desired book they were reading, only to
remember they’ve already finished it. –A definite recommend!