The Jekyl Island Club

by Brent Monahan

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312276982
• ISBN13: 9780312276980
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A Terrific KickOff to a Great Series of Mysteries

The Jeyll Island Club by Brent Monahan was a geat read. Moody, mysterious, filled with fascinating historical detail, and introducing a new hero in retired sheriff John Le Brun. The book has all everything you need to spend an evening in a comfortable chair with your mind wandering into the strange past of Jekyll Island. Definitely a thinking-man's thriller.

A great book especially for those who know Jekyll

I have visited Jekyll all my life and worked there for six summers. Before the clubhouse was renovated, we used to swim in the pool. Even with all this exposure to the historic district, I can't wait to go back and revisit the homes and enjoy the atmosphere, sights and sounds of the historic district - all the imagery found in this novel. The book does indeed make you wonder if in fact the author knows of things kept hidden from the public by the secretive elite members of the Jekyll Island Club.

Don't Miss This One

The Jekyl Island Club was my first exposure to Monahan and probably not my last. Monahan's book, set in the late 18oo's pits a crafty, columbo-like cop against an overconfident crew of money men to solve a murder on Jekyl Island. This is a page-turning "historical murder mystery" you shouldn't miss.

Delightful and enlightening

It starts out a little slow (some very long chapters) but soon you are hooked. The fascination of moguls of that time and their impact on our history. Well written. You wish there were other books about Sheriff John Le Brun and his crime solving abilities.