Jonas Flynt's stepmother, Mercy, has been abducted from Edinburgh and carried back to the West Indies by her former owner.

Gideon Flynt his father, has followed in hot pursuit, but Cassie, Jonas's first love, knows he is not the man he once was and appeals to Flynt for help. Naturally, he agrees.

Against Colonel Nathaniel Charters' wishes, he sails for the Caribbean, where he will unwittingly join forces with the most notorious pirate of all time, Blackbeard.

But this time he may be out of his depth.

An utterly gripping historical crime thriller set on the high seas from the McIlvanney Prize longlisted author of An Honourable Thief.

Douglas Skelton has published numerous non-fiction books and crime thrillers. He has been a bank clerk, tax officer, shelf stacker, meat porter, taxi driver (for two days), wine waiter (for two hours), reporter, investigator and local newspaper editor. He has been longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize six times, most recently in 2025. Douglas has contributed to true crime shows on TV and radio and is a regular on the crime writing festival circuit.