This excerpt was so good I wish I had the book here in front of me so I could finish. The main character is a confusing contradiction, seemingly both pro-slavery and also somehow holding abolitionist tendencies. The story follows Mungo who receives a letter that his father has died and he needs to return home or everything will be lost. The slaves upon his father’s death were supposed to be freed but the house an doroperty would at least be his. What he comes home to find is that his home was foreclosed on, the lawyer his father trusted has tricked his father into foolish decisions to inevitably steal the property and murdered his father, and that all the slaves have been sold. This is further complicated by the fact that Mungo appears to love one of them, Camilla the one who told him what was happening. Now he must prove that his father was murdered and that the lawyer has cheated him and stolen from him. It’s all very exciting and dramatic. I’m hooked!