Read in pre-blogging days, before 2009. ( )

"I, Jeronimus, am a man of phials, a measurer of powders on bronze scales, a potion brewer, an opium and arsenic merchant. The primped and perfumed Amsterdam burghers came to me in droves requiring cures for fevers, love balms, the miscarriage of a bastard child, and, of course, poisons. Ah, poisons."

So speaks Jeronimus Cornelisz, a thirty-year-old apothecary who transforms before our eyes into a murderous madman.
The Company is a novel based on the 1629 voyage of the Dutch East India Company flagship Batavia, bound for the colonies with a cargo of untold riches. Among the passengers is Cornelisz, a man ousted from polite society by sordid rumors of necromancy. Corrupt to the very marrow of his soul, Cornelisz considers himself God's equal, the rightful heir to gold, silver -- even another man's wife. So twisted is he by lust and greed that he incites a mutiny, running the ship aground on a reef.
All is lost -- the ship is wrecked, its passengers dying, the treasure trashed at the bottom of the sea. "The apothecary will heal us," the survivors pray, believing themselves lucky to be alive. In the name of benevolence, Cornelisz seizes command of their island refuge. The brave castaways stir with hope -- until the killing begins. For forty frenzied days, Cornelisz decides who shall live and who shall die, leaving his victims with just one wish -- that they had gone down with the ship.
Soaked with the blood of the innocent and the wicked, The Company plunges, with the weight of history, deep into the heart of darkness.

We know who did it. This is a book that compensates for that hurdle by depth of research into one of the big Sea-faring disaster stories. The wreck of the Dutch East India Company's ship "Batavia". The tale is much on a par with Nordoff and Hall's "Pitcairn's Island". Have a good time! ( )

Fascinating story of the wreck of the Batavia and the "Lord of the Flies" type events which ensued. I have seen the remains of the Batavia and some of the items salvaged and have always been interested in the story of treachery and murder which followed after the ship foundered off the coast of Western Australia in 1629. It is amazing that one man was able to exert his will so totally over what were originally more 200 survivors. This book casts a light on the dark shadows of the soul - the view is not pleasant. ( )

On to another brutal story...The Company: Portrait of a Murder was depressing. It is sort of a like a coed version of Lord of the Flies told from the perspective of a psychopath. Based on a true story, The Companytells the tale of the 1629 wreck of the Batavia off the coast of Australia. The psychopath uses the wreck as an opportunity to rape, murder etc. in the name of controlling circumstances until they have been rescued. It is an ok read, great for nautical vocabulary building. There's something simply inarticulable that made me disklike this novel.

Maybe I felt that it was too heavyhanded in some places and too light in others? I can't think of one memorable sentence in the whole entire book, but I can think of scenes that haunt me. It's definitely a book I will hide from children (if I had any) until they were, oh I don't know? Married. It was, admittedly, well-written. If the author tackled a slightly less violent tale, then I might take a look at her other works. ( )