A historical action-adventure novel set in the five years from 1798 – 1803. Has a little of everything, pirates, natives, swashbuckling scoundrels, intrigue, naval battles and so much more. The writing style is very fast paced, and the action never stops. Protagonist John Sullivan is laser-focused on righting the wrong that was done to his family five years ago when his father’s ship was captured by pirates and his family was sold into slavery on the Barbery Coast. John managed to escape to the New World but his mother, father, and sister are still being held captive. He vows to rescue them and there’s not one thing that will stop him – not a lack of funds, lack of transportation, not even having no clue where they are being held or if they are still alive.
I felt for John’s character even though he was a pig-headed fool much of the time. The ancillary characters Ethan, Dominique, and Melly were well fleshed out and I wanted to know more about where they came from and what happened to them. Fair warning – it does end on a cliffhanger and the next one in the series isn’t available yet. Write faster, Garrett Bettencourt, write faster.
There are a couple of gay characters and they were fairly well written. In my opinion, they weren’t shoehorned into the story just for diversity’s sake.
I was gifted a copy of the audio version on Audible by Travis Baldree who is the narrator in return for the promise of an honest review. Travis does an excellent job of making the characters come to life. Travis has a very smooth and enjoyable voice and does a wide variety of accents. This is the second book I’ve reviewed with him as a narrator and honestly, hope it’s not the last. Sometimes the narrator can really make or break a book (I’m thinking of a thriller where the narrator read the sex scenes in a monotone).