Stranded in the sweltering port of Batavia after his ship goes down, Captain Jack Barry has hit rock bottom. The sea has been his life, but the sea has spat him out onto streets he doesn't know, with empty pockets and no prospects. Then Tom Little walks in with a proposition that sounds too good: captain a brigantine bound for Celebes, investigating a trader named Gordon who's been playing fast with gold dust. What begins as a straightforward maritime gig curdles into something far more dangerous. There's Mrs. Goring, whose intentions remain opaque as the jungle night, and Mindjee, a Malay guide whose knowledge of these waters may be the only thing standing between Barry and disaster. As the brigantine cuts through dark waters toward an island legendary for its wealth and its peril, Barry must navigate not just treacherous currents but the treacherous hearts of his companions. Gold glitters in the distance, but so does treachery. This is adventure fiction at its old-school pulse: exotic locales rendered with period intimacy, a mystery that deepens with each chapter, and a hero who must learn that the most dangerous waters aren't always the ones beneath the hull.
