From Star Singer to Pirate Prey - an Editorial Review of "Showboat Soubrette"

Book Blurb:

FROM STAR SHOWBOAT SINGER

TO PIRATE PREY ON THE WICKED RIVER!

Showboat singer Stella Parrot’s star rises in the Antebellum South with every sold-out performance along the lower Mississippi River. When a river pirate viciously assaults her, new friends Toby Freeman and John Dee Franklin foil the attack. However, the pirate’s family is bent on revenge.

Stella, Toby, and John Dee escape their riverboat with able assistance from young cub pilot Sam Clemens, only to be pursued by the notorious Burton Gang. As the trio runs for their lives, mortal perils await at every turn: a fierce storm, high-stakes gambling confrontations, deadly combat, and a cotton boat up in flames. Stella, a Cherokee Indian, and Toby, a free Black man, and their friend White man John Dee endure relentless racial prejudices and injustices in the gritty underbelly of the Wicked River while fleeing to New Orleans—where the Burtons will be waiting!

Showboat Soubrette’s fast-paced lower river adventure chase features romantic showboat scenes and is unsparing in its exploration of the bigoted and sometimes lawless riverboat era.

Book Buy Link: https://geni.us/3G2UDsZ

Author Bio:

Raised in the Midwest, Brodie Curtis was educated as a lawyer and left the corporate world to embrace life in Colorado with his wife and two sons.

Curtis is the author of THE FOUR BELLS, a novel of The Great War, which is the product of extensive historical research, including long walks through the fields of Flanders, where much of the book's action is set. His second novel, ANGELS AND BANDITS, takes his protagonists into The Battle of Britain. Curtis is currently working on a novel set on a Mississippi Riverboat prior to the Civil War.

A lover of history, particularly American history and the World Wars, Curtis reviews historical fiction for the Historical Novels Review and more than 100 of his published reviews and short takes on historical novels can be found on his website: brodiecurtis.com.

Editorial Review:

Title: Showboat Soubrette

Author: Brodie Curtis

Rating: 5

"Showboat Soubrette" by Brodie Curtis is the rare kind of historical adventure that doesn’t just recount the riverboat era of the 1850s Mississippi but rather, resurrects it with visceral detail, breakneck pacing, and unflinching social grit. Rooted in the lore of showboats, pirates, and the “Wicked River,” this is a story that sweeps you into the current and doesn’t let go until the final page.

Set in the volatile years before the Civil War, this novel follows Cherokee singer, Stella Parrot, as her rising career on the luxurious The Lady J is violently upended by an assault from river pirate Ricky Burton. Rescued by the unusual partnership of John Dee Franklin, a charismatic gambler, and Toby Freeman, a freed Black man, Stella is thrust into a desperate flight downriver, pursued by the vengeful Burton's gang following Rick's death in the hands of Toby, an act which Franklin surprisingly takes the blame for. Their journey afterwards, is a forced expulsion from a place of safety and purpose into a chaotic, hostile underworld that exposes the harsh realities of race, lawlessness, and survival in the Antebellum South, all while forging an unbreakable bond between three outsiders.

From the opening pages, Curtis immerses the reader in the sights, sounds, and stark social divisions of the riverfront. In an early scene at Friars Point, the segregated decks of The Lady J speak volumes about the world Stella navigates.

"Only Mr. Franklin stood next to Stella. The White folks kept their distance from the Black folks with her somewhere in the middle, same as always. She figured it was her skin color, which was too dark for the White folk and too light for the Black folk. Most people didn’t recognize her out of costume, so to White folks she was just a brown-skinned woman with high cheekbones and long black hair."

This passage moves far beyond merely sketching a historical setting, zeroing in instead on the narrative's essential conflict. By confronting the era's harsh social divisions head-on, Curtis anchors the adventure in a tangible atmosphere of inequity and it is this foundation that precisely is what drives the characters' actions and secures the reader's emotional stake in their journey.

As the chase intensifies, the bond between Stella, John Dee, and Toby deepens through shared history and peril even as in a quiet, reflective moment aboard The Lady J, Stella realizes their connection runs back to childhood.

"Just for an instant, they were young boys again. Good God in heaven! I remember these two!

“We all go back a ways,” she said. Toby shot her a questioning look. “Ma’am?”

“When you were just boys and I was a little girl. On nunahi-duna-dlo-hilu-i. The Trail of Tears.”"

This revelation transforms their alliance from "convenience" into what strongly feels like destiny. Curtis masterfully weaves past trauma with present danger, showing how shared history as well as shared oppression can forge resilience and loyalty in the face of relentless pursuit. This excerpt masterfully uses memories to pivot the entire narrative. The simple, stunned phrase, “Good God in heaven! I remember these two!” does the heavy lifting of a full backstory chapter.

The novel’s greatest strength is its unflinching portrayal of danger and moral complexity. When Toby kills Ricky Burton in defense of Stella, Franklin makes a split-second decision to take the blame, a choice that underscores the lethal prejudice of the era.

“You’re a Black man on the lower river—you know how it goes. This ginty’s from round here. His brothers and their thugs will never listen to your side. It’ll be a lynching court, and your neck will be stretched by morning.”

Here, the “adventure” is stripped of any romance and is instead replaced by the grim calculus of survival in a society where justice is skewed by race. Curtis incorporates this moment not for mere shock but to anchor the thriller in authentic, high-stakes human conflict. The dialogue here feels blunt but pragmatic, laying bare the lethal mechanics of prejudice where a factual assessment "you know how it goes" carries the weight of a death sentence.

"Showboat Soubrette" is a novel that transcends a simple river chase, unfolding instead as a richly textured portrait of a time and place where beauty and brutality are forced to coexist. Brodie Curtis has crafted a story that entertains without simplifying, thrills without trivializing, and ultimately delivers a powerful testament to courage and solidarity on the margins of history, a balance he achieves through a masterful control of narrative flow, where quiet moments of character revelation flow seamlessly into heart-pounding action, and through a prose that is both evocative and precise, giving voice to a trio of characters whose depth and resilience transform them from "archetypes" companions to indelible individuals. For readers who crave historical fiction with pace and teeth, this novel will be a compelling and unforgettable ride.

Award:

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