The Jekyl Island Club

Brent Monahan

Description

Located on the idyllic Georgia coast, Jekyl Island was the playground of the rich at the turn of the last century. Vanderbilts, Goulds, Rockefellers, and other members of elite society vacationed there, enjoying the finest aspects of Southern hospitality that money could buy and importing the rest from New York. Indeed, the money was good: the club's one hundred members controlled one sixth of the nation's wealth.

When one of the club's members is shot to death on the island, his fellow captains of industry anxiously conclude it was as a hunting accident. Is the impending visit to the Jekyl Island Club by President McKinley the only reason? Could J. P. Morgan himself have been the one who pulled the trigger? Whose side is member and millionaire newspaperman Joseph Pulitzer on?

The answer to whether or not the richest of the rich can literally get away with murder lies in the hands of local sheriff John Le Brun, a wily Civil War veteran who has his own agenda with the Yankees who bought Jekyl Island.

This ingenious novel raises Brent Monahan to the first rank of contemporary entertainers. The real Jekyl Island Club, its members, and many real events from American history of the era are interwoven within a plot that could easily have happened. Cleverly plotted and delightfully told, The Jekyl Island Club is suspenseful storytelling at its finest.

Sujets

• Policier & Thriller
• Policier
• Historical
• Jekyll Island Club
• John Pierpont
• J. P. Morgan
• Detective
• Sheriff
• Mystery
• Joseph Pulitzer
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 01 décembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781681620305
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE JEKYL ISLAND CLUB
THE JEKYL ISLAND CLUB
A JOHN LE BRUN NOVEL
by
Brent Monahan
Turner Publishing Company 424 Church Street Suite 2240 Nashville, Tennessee 37219 445 Park Avenue 9th Floor New York, New York 10022
www.turnerpublishing.com
The Jekyl Island Club, A Novel
Copyright 2000, 2015 Brent Monahan. All rights reserved.
All rights reserved. This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Cover design: Maddie Cothren Book design: Glen Edelstein
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Monahan, Brent, 1948- The Jekyl Island club : a novel / by Brent Monahan. -- First edition. pages ; cm -- (A John Le Brun novel ; 1) ISBN 978-1-68162-115-9 (softcover) -- ISBN 978-1-68162-029-9 (hardcover) 1. Le Brun, John (Fictitious character)--Fiction. 2. Sheriffs--Georgia--Fiction. 3. Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913--Fiction. 4. Pulitzer, Joseph, 1847-1911--Fiction. 5. Men--Societies and clubs--Fiction. 6. Rich people--Fiction. I. Title. PS3563.O5158J4 2015 813 .54--dc23
2015034754
Printed in the United States of America 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
for Bonnie
CONTENTS
A NEW WINTER CLUB
FRIDAY March 17, 1899
SATURDAY March 18, 1899
SUNDAY March 19, 1899
MONDAY March 20, 1899
TUESDAY March 21, 1899
WEDNESDAY March 22, 1899
THURSDAY March 23, 1899
TUESDAY April 1, 1913
ABOUT THE JEKYL ISLAND CLUB
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A NEW WINTER CLUB
ONE OF THE OLD SEA ISLANDS SECURED BY A PARTY OF WEALTHY GENTLEMEN
T HE J EKYL I SLAND C LUB is the title of an association of wealthy gentlemen who have recently bought the island of this name situated seven miles from the mainland and opposite Brunswick, Georgia.
Jekyl Island, one of the famous Sea Island cotton plantations, is 10 miles long and 2 1/2 miles wide. On the ocean side it has a frontage of hard white sand beach 100 yards wide, affording splendid driving and bathing facilities the entire length of the island, which is composed of a large area of rich cultivatable soil, oak and pine timber, ponds fresh and salt, fine cover for game, for which it is well stocked. The island has been in the undisturbed possession of the family of the recent owner for over one hundred years, and the game preserved, which consists of deer, wild turkey, quail, snipe, woodcock, English snipe, and wild fowl. The fishing is said to be unequaled, and includes an abundance of that excellent fish, sheephead. An oyster bed several miles long occupies the inner shore, from which the epicures of Baltimore and Washington secure their supplies, regardless of cost.
The purchase includes a fine house and grounds, 400 head of cattle, 100 head of horses, 400 hogs, not including several hundred wild ones, which will give the young members of the club a fine chance to hunt the wild boar. The sanitary considerations are valuable as being seven miles from the mainland, and, having a frontage on the sea, the cool breezes make the climate most enjoyable and healthy, and rids the island of the annoyance of mosquitoes. The club was barely in time securing the property, as a company of capitalists were about to purchase, with the object of erecting a large hotel and making it the fashionable resort of the South. The club could sell already at a good profit, but speculation was not its object.
The fifty gentlemen composing the club include some of the highest social and wealthiest citizens, and many members of the Union, Yacht, and other clubs. The facilities for yachting are unsurpassed, and fine shelter and anchorage is a feature of the inner shore of the island. The yachts will be utilized to take members and their families to the island, and affords a secure and cheap place to lay up craft out of commission.
It is predicted that the Jekyl Island Club is going to be the swell club, the creme de la creme of all, inasmuch as many of the members are intending to erect cottages and make it their Winter Newport. There is already a great demand for shares, which, being all taken by private subscription, are not obtainable. It is not intended that it shall be a selfish and exclusive man s club. On the contrary, ladies will constitute an attractive element and will be freely admitted to all the privileges to which their husbands, fathers, and brothers are entitled. They can fish, shoot, ride on horseback, bathe, camp out and enjoy themselves. This new feature of the club will, of course, be popular. The Executive Committee, will, in a few days, make a trip to the island, to determine the nature of the improvements to be made, with a view of having the club formally opened in the Fall. Grounds will be laid out for all the games, including polo, and already the younger members are eager to commence the work of breaking and training the 100 head of wild ponies for that purpose.
The following gentlemen compose the Board of Directors and officers for the coming year: Gen. Lloyd Aspinwall, Erastus Corning, of Albany; the Hon. Wirt Dexter, of Chicago; William B. DeWolf; Lewis Edwards; R. L. Ogden; John Eugene Du Bignon; Oliver K. King; Franklin M. Ketchum; L. M. Lawson; Henry E. Howland; and N. S. Finney. The officers are: President-Gen. Lloyd Aspinwall; Vice President-ex-Judge Henry E. Howland; Treasurer-Franklin M. Ketchum; and Secretary-R. L. Ogden.
-from The New York Times, April 23, 1886
M KINLEY AND REED?
Only Chance Meeting All the Members of Presidential Party Express Surprise at Speaker s Jekyl Visit Of course they may confer
T HOMASVILLE , G A ., M ARCH 19
T HOMASVILLE WAS RIFE with political gossip today. Jekyl Island, the story ran, was to be the scene of a political gathering where the future course of the Republican party would be gone over and settled far from the press and shielded from intrusion by strict enforcement of the no-trespassing regulations of the club.
The sudden appearance of Speaker Reed at Jekyl Island, the authoritative statement that President McKinley, Vice-President Hobart and Senator Hanna would make their trips there on Monday, and the visit of Judge Day, ex-Secretary of State, to Thomasville, though mere coincidences, according to the gentlemen named, who are here, revived at once recollections of the important part in national history born of Thomasville conferences four years ago.
The conference now, said the gossip, were to be transferred to Jekyl Island.
Senator Hanna, Vice-President Hobart and President McKinley himself say positively that there is no politics whatsoever in their present visit South, and that it is undertaken solely for rest and recuperation. As to Speaker Reed s presence at Jekyl Island, both Senator Hanna and Vice-President Hobart said they did not know the Speaker was there.
-from The World, page 10, 1899
FRIDAY
March 17, 1899
SNAPPING SHEETS OF RAIN had long since washed the perfume of Golden Isles primrose and honeysuckle from the spring air. It had also washed the good nature from the hundreds of vacationers swelling the population of Brunswick, Georgia. Under the promenade roof of the elegant Oglethorpe Hotel its equally elegant guests paraded back and forth with the aspect of caged cats. The oompah-pah bass of a Verdi overture carried through the saturated air from the nearby L Arioso Opera House. From the opposite direction, a saloon piano player banged out a ragtime tune. The resort town s nine thousand inhabitants were doing their best to rekindle the dampened spirits of those visitors who had braved the downpour.
The roof of the hotel s veranda vaulted out two stories above the deck, having been created more for ornament than function. When the early evening wind whipped from the east, the rain swept in like a tide. A woman in a black and white silk summer toilette dress yelped in dismay and jumped back from the latest wave. Her derriere collided with the table behind her, creating havoc with the chess game in progress.
I m terribly sorry! the woman s escort apologized.
So am I, John Le Brun muttered under his breath, as the man and woman hurried away. Those chess pieces that had not been overturned were either off their proper squares or rolling like drunkards on the wooden deck.
Shall we say quits on the tie-breaker, or shall we begin again? Le Brun s companion asked, in a Kensington accent.
No need, Le Brun said, groaning softly as he bent low from his chair to retrieve the fallen pieces. It was pawn to king four, pawn to king four. He began placing the chessmen on the board. Knight to king s bishop three, knight to queen s bishop three. Bishop to knight five, pawn to queen s rook three. Bishop to rook four, knight to bishop three. Knight to bishop three, pawn to queen three. Then pawn to queen four and pawn to queen s knight four. Your move.
Extraordinary! the Englishman exclaimed. Do you recall everything in life as clearly, Sheriff?
Most things, Le Brun replied, fixing his eyes on the board. He squinted a bit. He had been squinting at things close to him for the past three years, ever since he turned fifty. His tanned, thick-skinned face had borne wrinkles for considerably longer than that. Beneath his derby hat, his coarse black hair was thinning. No stranger would have taken him for anything less than his age.
Geoffrey Moore moved his bishop to knight three. I hope this rain doesn t fall all night. Transporting my luggage to the train will be a dreadful task.
Anybody s guess, Le Brun replied, taking Moore s pawn with his pawn. He reached automatically for his cigar, realized it had been jostled out of the ashtray, swore under his breath, and bent again to find it. His eyes caught a flash of bright colo