A Master of Fortune: Being Further Adventures of Captain Kettle

When Captain Owen Kettle signs on as a pilot for a ship threading into the Congo Free State, he tells himself it's for his family. The pay is miserable, the river is lethal, and the entire territory runs on exploitation - rubber and ivory pulled from the jungle by coerced labor. Kettle knows this. He takes the job anyway. What follows is a fever-dream of colonial brutality seen through the eyes of a man trying to hold onto his humanity while navigating a system designed to crush it. Action sequences pile up - narrow escapes, mutinous crews, encounters with both the river and the men who rule it - but beneath the adventure lies an uncomfortable question: what does survival cost when you've sold your conscience to get it? Hyne writes with the blunt force of a man who saw colonial exploitation firsthand and refused to look away. This is adventure fiction with teeth, not for the faint of heart.