I’ve gone back to my Gin and Magic concept (think Dashiel Hammet’s Thin Man, but with magic
).
Read it last night. The 1935s film version is quite different. The sequel films are not from Dashiel Hammet’s books.
Very gripping, though an amount of drinking and cocktails that would make Fleming / Bond jealous?
Was it partly because it was Prohibition in the USA then, on a similar literary principle to Enid Byton's characters having feasts during rationing (very severe in UK compared to USA and much worse just after the end of WWII, only ending in very early 1950s). Though prohibition doesn't explain the cops beating up people.
I hope the story works out for you. I'm sure I never read it before yet the start of my "Starship Chief" has some aspects similar to the opening paragraphs. Though "Starship Chief" is an adventure inspired by a mashup of King Lear, Treasure Island and Coral Island.
Stevenson credits Coral Island and almost EVERYTHING in popular Western Culture on Pirates is from Treasure Island. Curiously only evidence that one Pirate ever buried treasure and the location wasn't really even secret. The most successful "pirates" were licenced by Queen Elizabeth to harry the Spanish shipping gold they stole from the Americas. The economic boom of Europe and subsequent ability to dominate / "colonise" the world might have been fuelled by that theft of gold. A second aspect was a population boom in Europe fed by the imported Potato. The resulting dependence was why there were massive famines in Europe, not just Ireland.
The most positive aspect might have been the Portuguese introducing Chillies to Asia. What would Asian food be today without chillis? Or Italian food without tomatoes? Chocolate and rubber too.