Fred and the Hungry Sea (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

The 'Roaring Twenties' were not such a great time for everybody in Britain, and most of the world, especially for the unemployed ex-soldiers begging on the streets. The well-off were enjoying themselves partying, not knowing what 1929 would bring - they didn't know that they were dancing the Charleston on the deck of the Titanic.Fred was not enjoying life; after surviving a disaster when young and in which he nearly drowned, he was left with a pathological fear of water and the sea. With all his relatives dead he joined the Army and found that he liked the life - apart from the rather brutal method employed to teach him to swim. The Regiment arrived to garrison a small island between Cuba and Florida and Fred soon established himself as a smart and efficient soldier, which resulted in him being given a special job, on the staff of Government House. Here he met the woman who was to be the love of his life, Sadie, but Fate interrupted his dream of marriage when his lover was brutally murdered. Fred attacked the main murder suspect, Snape, an officer on the Governor's staff, and Fred was returned to normal duty. Snape tried to use his position to put the blame for Sadie's murder on Fred, but the truth came out eventually with Snape's suicide. Fred was returned to normal duty. Disillusioned, he took up his old life with his mates, frequenting a bar run by a faded Cabaret singer Bessie, known as Madame Fifi. His friends were two Irishmen, Paddy and Billy, old soldiers with opposite religious affiliation, and Tug and Johnno, much younger, though older than Fred. Paddy began an affair with Bessie and when his time to leave the Army arrived he stayed on the island with her. Fred had little hope of promotion because of his attack on Snape and being suspected of murder, so he was less enthusiastic than before. He started a fight with American sailors in the bar to protect Salome, Bessie's daughter, which did nothing to improve his record. The final straw came when he accidentally killed an officer who sneaked up on him trying to catch him having a smoke while on guard duty at night. Fred feared that he would be charged with murder and be hanged; who would believe his innocence, considering his record? So he deserted and went to Paddy at the bar for shelter, and while Bessie was arranging for Fred to get to Florida he hid at the flat of Bessie's brother, Joe, where Salome also lived. But Salome was now in love with Fred, which complicated matters.In order to confuse the police and gain time Fred's clothes and possessions were left on the beach with a suicide note as though he had drowned himself, and Fred was given a job as machine-gunner on a rum-runner by Al, the Mafia man to whom Bessie supplied rum for smuggling to Florida.Fred was now in almost nightly contact with his old enemy, the sea, and he had the occasional shoot-out with the US Coastguard. But how long could this last? Would he ever manage to get to a new life in Florida, and perhaps meet Salome there?