Set against a background of revolution and profiteering of an unnamed port town, the story's unnamed narrator is hired to protect a vast sum of money shadowy investors have entrusted to him. Literally chests of silver coins, this fortune must be protected at all costs. He turns for assistance to a naïve sailor, beautiful and young, who helps the narrator evacuate his money from a trading emporium overrun by violent mobs. With a hopeless fondness, the boy wants acknowledgement that lives have been destroyed for the sake of money. Unfortunately the ruthless calculus of profit and loss has an eerie appeal the narrator can’t shake, and the mobs are closing in. And he again has to get his fortune out of the city he’s found uneasy shelter in.
Review
Mystery and intrigue abound in David McConnell's The Silver Hearted. And that's not all that is there--there is also desire, revolution, violence and treasure and some really exciting pirates. Our narrator, who is never named, is close to 30 and he relates to us that he is in a city which he refers to as "Z". He moves to another place, "B" where he launders money for a boss who is demanding. When he receives the assignment to guard twenty-four chests of silver dollars, he formulates a plan to move it downriver. He gets Topher Ammidon Smith, a teen to help him fulfill his plan and somehow he becomes the apple of the narrator's eye. Hence we have a love story.
The book is set against war and unrest in a country, which like the narrator, is not named. Another major character is the "Myrrha", a ship that will take our narrator to where he wants along with the silver. But there is a snag. The "Myrrha's" captain also has his eye's on Topher and herein is the problem. Neither the narrator or the captain dare make a move on the boy.
The narration is beautifully written and McConnell uses a great deal of detail. The eroticism is excellent but incomplete. It is as if the author teases us and then lets us down. However, he forces us to let our imagination to take over and I find that quite novel.
