The Cruise of the Midge (vol. 2 of 2)

The novel opens with Benjamin Brail bleeding out in a dim Havana room, stabbed and left for dead. What follows is a tale of maritime intrigue, betrayal, and the fragile thread between life and death. Brail's recovery becomes a journey through deception and unexpected alliances as he untangles who saved him and who struck the blow. Michael Scott weaves a story where honor among naval men collides with darker impulses, where every face might hide a secret and every kindness a price. The high seas provide both escape and reckoning. This is Victorian naval fiction at its most psychologically acute: less about battles and more about the wounds we carry and who we become when the fog clears. For readers who love Patrick O'Brian but crave something grimmer, more concerned with the moral weight of survival than the romance of the quarterdeck.