The Curse

Book excerpt: During the 1990s, two Connecticut Indian tribes opened the world's two biggest gambling casinos in the southeastern corner of the state, resulting in what has been termed a "gambling Chernobyl."The Curse is a novel based on those events.It begins in 1637 with the massacre of the Pequot Indians and a curse delivered by a Pequot sachem to the young English soldier who is about to kill him. The story then jumps 350 years as the soldier's thirteenth-generation descendant, Josh Williams, becomes embroiled in a battle to stop a newly-minted Indian tribe from building a third casino that threatens his town and ancestral home. The lure of easy money drives everyone from the tribe's fraudulent chief to a shadowy Miami billionaire, venal politicians, and Providence mobsters, while a small, quintessential New England town must choose between preserving its character or accepting an extraordinary proposal that will change it forever. As the battle over the casino reaches a climax, Josh discovers startling truths about his family's past--including centuries-old events that appear to be impacting the present with devastating effect.