Showboat Soubrette

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, so Stella, Toby, and John Dee find they must run for their lives.

The trio escapes their riverboat with able assistance from young cub pilot Sam Clemens, only to be pursued by the notorious Burton Gang. 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.

“Readers of historical fiction will love Showboat Soubrette…a river adventure down the great Mississippi to New Orleans in the 1850s when racial tension is ripe in the Old South…an adventure worthy of Mark Twain’s pen…Curtis is a master of description and atmosphere.”

—Tyler R. Tichelaar, PhD and award-winning author of The Mysteries of Marquette