Cornwall, 1625. A quiet fishing village sleeps beneath a lavender sky - unaware that black sails are approaching from the horizon. Before dawn, the sea will come not to feed Mousehole... but to steal from it.

Thomas Hale, fisherman, husband, father of three, is torn from his home by Barbary corsair slavers and dragged across the sea to Algiers - the heart of a ruthless empire built on chains. Sold like cargo, forced into brutal labour beneath a foreign sun, he refuses to surrender his name, his faith, or the memory of his wife waiting across the water.

But survival is not enough. He must return. Or die as an Englishman.

Across deserts and slave markets, storms and betrayal, allies appear in the unlikeliest of souls - a disgraced English renegade, a fearless Moorish healer, and monks who risk death to buy back the stolen.

Yet as Thomas fights for escape, another battle is stirring - in London itself. For the night the corsairs came for Mousehole... was not the end - but the warning. And now England begins to wake.

Based on real, forgotten history - a powerful tale of faith, endurance, and the turning of a nation's fate.

Autorentext

Martin Swan is a British author and digital creator known for reviving the golden age of pulp fiction through fast-paced thrillers, historical mysteries, and sharp-tongued detective tales. With a deep love for classic storytelling and vintage heroes, Martin writes with cinematic flair, breathing new life into icons like Sherlock Holmes and Bulldog Drummond for modern readers.

When he's not crafting globe-trotting espionage or tongue-in-cheek cozy mysteries, Martin curates digital content for indie authors and builds faceless income systems using AI and storytelling. He lives somewhere between a foggy London alleyway and a Havana speakeasy?depending on what chapter he's writing.