Brethren

Brethren is the story of John Williams, Viscount of Marsdale (known for most of the book as Will), sent by his estranged father to manage the family's sugar plantation in 1667 Jamaica. On his arrival, he instead joins up with the Brethren of the Coast (a predominantly gay tribe of buccaneers raiding Spanish settlements and ships under the auspices of Jamaica's British governor); in particular, he falls in love with a mostly straight and intermittently mad buccaneer called Gaston the Ghoul. The book is so eventful—exciting, sexy, philosophical, funny, dramatic, and well-characterized—that the Historical Novel-ese it's told in generally fades from view. The increasing emotional attachment and sexual tension between Will and Gaston is especially finely paced, escalating at calculated yet highly natural-feeling intervals that allow Hoffman to reveal his characters' back-story in perfect-sized bites. Unfortunately (and magnificently), the trilogy itself is equally deliberately paced over all three books—now I'm impatient for volumes two and three. —Jeff Matthews - Frontiers Magazine June 20, 2006