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Don Westenhaver served with the Marines in Vietnam as a radioman and interpretor. His fascination with different cultures grew with frequent visits to Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Africa as a finance executive. These experiences inspired his first two novels.
His third and fourth novels, Nero's Concert and Alexander's Lighthouse, spring from Don's life-long interest in ancient Rome, backed by intense research and much travel.
Don has been married for 40 years and has two grown daughters and two grandchildren. He and his wife are active in four charities that assist the poor.
Reviewed by Ian Miller for Readers' Favorite
"Alexander's Lighthouse" is a story set in Alexandria during the Imperium of Domitian. The setting is historical, but it creates major events that did not happen, so it is not entirely a historical novel. The story is generally well-written and produced, and the writing flows well. Perhaps the greatest strength is that the story is well-constructed. The story begins with Marco, a Christian from Corinth, whose father was a friend of the Prefect of Alexandria, Titus Cornelius. Through Titus, Marco gets a position in the engineering section of the Museum, which has the task of improving and making some use of Hero's inventions. Events follow one after the other in quick succession: Marco's group begins to develop a new weapon; Marco falls for Paula, Titus' daughter; then he becomes entangled with Nebit, a slightly older Egyptian woman, who has also been previously associated with the "Free Egypt" movement which also has members present at the Museum. The author neatly manoeuvres the various participants so that tension is maintained throughout. The story's climax involves an insurrection from rebels with the new weapon that operates on several "fronts", and the author handles the beginning of this insurrection very well, although the Roman response is somewhat insipid. The very end of the story is a little weaker, with a clearing of the decks to get to the desired finish. The problem for the author, of course, is that while it is plausible that this weapon could have been developed, it was not, so the story has to account for why it was lost. I personally found that unconvincing, but there may have been no other convincing option available.
Westenhaver has done a remarkable amount of research into the technology of the time, Alexandria, and Alexandrian life during the period. As the author notes at the end, some of the descriptions of Alexandria are conjecture, simply because the necessary information is not available. However, what he puts down is at least plausible and the reader has a very good idea of what life for upper class citizens was like in Alexandria. The author has identified a probable alternative history, and he has told the story in a way that grabs the reader's attention in an exciting way.
