Blue Dread

Blue Dread

1722. The Golden Age of Piracy. When mutineers cast her husband and the other officers of a British frigate adrift in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Meg Eaton must find some way to hold them off. Forced by intrigue to leave London in a rush, Meg, a high-priced courtesan, married Elias Bramwell, bosun aboard a British frigate. Petty officers can bring their wives on board, and Meg needs a quick and quiet passage to India. But with Elias and the others left to the mercy of the sea in a leaky boat, Meg faces a crew gleefully throwing off all restraint. Her only weapon: a sea tale Elias once told her of the fabled treasure of pirate Ben Ringgold. When Ringgold’s ship foundered in a storm most believed the treasure he seized from a ship of the Rag went down with him. But Meg tells the men that Elias alone survived, and revealed the location to her. The story wins her a reprieve, but a precarious one, with new threats arising day by day. As the crew turn pirate, sinking ever further into savagery, Meg must fall back on her knowledge of men to survive. But the island approaches, and with it, a reckoning. If you thrill to tales of ringing cutlasses, the smoke of broadsides cutting through the salt breeze, heroic seamanship, and do-or-die romance, then come aboard HMS Cygnet as she blazes a bloody course through pirate lore.