Strangely Wonderful
by Karen Mercury
Published by Medallion Press
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Reviewed by C. L. Rossman
The actual title of this book is The Strangely Wonderful Tale of Count Balashazy, but the two words on the cover are Strangely Wonderful, and it’s more recognizable that way.
It’s a red-hot love story between naturalist Dagny Ravenhurst and a pirate captain, Tomaj Balashazy—and it takes place during a real historical time period in Madagascar—the late 1820s when pirates, island politics and trade all blended together in a kind of democratic co-existence.
Dagny is supporting herself and her two brothers-by-choice, Salvatore and Ezekiel, by acting as the concubine of a rich businessman, Paul Boneaux. She is doing this so she can carry on her quest for strange and extinct animals in Madagascar, particularly the spooky-looking little Aye-aye, whom the native people regard with dread.
One day, as Dagny is crawling along a high tree branch after a rare orchid, she falls into the water and is rescued by Balashazy. He tells her he is an Hungarian count outcast by his family who was forced to go to New York, then fight alongside Jean Lafitte and ultimately come here, where he has built up his own little plantation estate through freebooting.
The rest of this book mixes the “strangely wonderful” climate of Madagascar with sex scenes between Dagny and her two lovers as raw and graphic as if they sprang from a porno novel. Tomaj Balashazy is in love with no one—until he meets Dagny, and Dagny has always treated sex as earning a living, until she meets Tomaj. Boneaux, Dagny’s patron and present lover, is Tomaj’s bitter rival, in a situation that sizzles with political intrigue. The setting gives this novel all the strangeness the reader could desire, and is written with a sly irony by the author, who received high acclaim for her previous books, The Hinterlands and the Four Quarters of the World. She writes about real historical periods from the viewpoint of fictional characters, who lustfully engage each other.
Armchair Interviews says: If sex, strangeness, and pirates are your cup of tea, this book is for you.
Author’s Web site: http://www.KarenMercury.com