Like an evening gone - Jeannie Johnson

Set in the mid-nineteenth century, this vibrant new saga follows the lives and fortunes of the powerful Strong family. They are sugar barons - wealthy, arrogant, decadent, and ruthless - with a string of plantations in Barbados, an English stronghold, Marstone Court, near Bristol, and ambitions to control the refining of sugar in that city. But in one night, the actions of one generation alter the family's legacy forever. The three Strong brothers - Emmanuel, the patriarchal eldest; silent, weak Otis; and reckless Jeb - are in the West Indies, overseeing their inheritance, as their father nears old age. In this balmy, tropical setting, an ugly situation is fuelled by Barbados rum; a murder is committed and a child conceived. The repercussions of this fatal night have a violent domino effect throughout this novel and into the next generation of Strongs.At the heart of the novel are Tom - a street urchin adopted by Jeb and now a charismatic sea captain - and Blanche, a young Barbados girl convinced she is a Strong. Brought to England after the death of her mother, she soon finds her illusions brutally shattered. But the Strongs are also vulnerable. In a business world transformed by Brunel's new London to Bristol railway, the abolition of slavery and the rise of the British Empire, the dynasty must adapt in order to survive.