Amazon.com description: Product Description: Further adventures of Thomas Marlowe, commander of THE GUARDSHIP Former pirate Thomas Marlowe lives prosperously on his tobacco plantation with his lovely wife, Elizabeth. But then, in a fit of rage, King James, the huge ex-slave who is in command of Marlowe's sloop, kills the crew of a slave ship - a blackbirder - and becomes the most wanted man in Virginia. The governor gives Marlowe a choice: hunt James down and bring him back to hang, or Marlowe will lose everything that he has built for himself. Struggling to maintain control over his crew, Marlowe sets out in pursuit of the ex-slave turned pirate. But aboard James's own ship there are further threats: factions vie for control and betrayal stalks him to the shores of Africa. It is there, in the slave port of Whydah, that James and Marlowe must face a common threat and their own final showdown. This action-packed, authentically detailed sea yarn is distinguished by the sobering moral undertones of its electrifying plot. First-rate maritime fiction in the tradition of Patrick O'Brian. Margaret Flanagan, BOOKLIST.