Arthur Warden has come to Cowes to watch the yachts, not to play hero. But when he meets the striking Evelyn Dane seeking help to locate a missing vessel, a simple flirtation curdles into something far darker. Warden recognizes the man with her: Miguel Figuero, the notorious Portuguese slave trader, long thought drowned. What follows is a breathless chase across the Channel and into the shadows of West Africa, where the elegant world of Edwardian yachting collides with the brutal commerce of human bondage. At the center lies a mysterious calabash, its contents carrying a message from a tortured past that could destroy lives or expose secrets men have killed to protect. Tracy weaves maritime adventure, romance, and suspense into a tale that treats abolition not as period wallpaper but as urgent moral terrain. For readers who want their period thrillers with teeth.
