Philippe Kermorvant, unfairly dismissed from the French Revolutionary Navy, accepts command of a privateer from its enigmatic owner. Having ignored his early misgivings, the mission quickly takes a dark turn, endangering the lives of everyone on board.

Meanwhile, the British prepare for an assault on the French mainland. Lord Wilden, Philippe's cousin, is charged with overseeing the mission.

As the revolutionary forces savagely clash with the combined strength of the British naval power and the French royalist rebels still harkening for the return of the monarchy, defeat for either side will prove utterly devastating.

And Philippe, stuck far away from the action, will have to contend not just with the impending destruction of his own future, but the risk of losing everyone he holds dear.

An utterly compelling Age of Sail adventure told in fascinating detail from each side of the conflict from a renowned naval historian.

J. D. Davies is the prolific author of historical naval adventures. He is also one of the foremost authorities on the seventeenth-century navy, which brings a high level of historical detail to his fiction, namely his Matthew Quinton series. He has written widely on the subject, most recently Kings of the Sea: Charles II, James II and the Royal Navy,and won the Samuel Pepys Award in 2009 with Pepys's Navy: Ships, Men and Warfare, 1649-1689.