Young midshipman Fitzgerald Burnett is desperate for action. Stuck aboard a gunboat patrolling the endless gray waters of the English Channel, he watches the horizon and dreams of something more than monotony. When he finally gets his chance, a nighttime raid against smugglers spirals into something far darker than any training exercise. A blow to the head leaves him unconscious, and when he wakes, he's aboard a mysterious schooner drifting through foreign waters, tangled in a Central American conflict that will test everything he thought he knew about courage, loyalty, and the blurred line between duty and lawlessness. Fenn renders the nautical world with visceral precision: the salt-crusted decks, the creak of rigging in heavy seas, the claustrophobic tension of a night raid where anything might emerge from the darkness. What begins as a straightforward adventure for an eager young sailor becomes something messier and more compelling: a story about how quickly the certainties of boyhood dissolve when real danger arrives. Fitz must grow up fast or not at all.
