“Piracy’s tried-and-true hallmarks—treasure, treachery, intermittent romance and high-seas mutiny” from the Scottish author of the Flashman Papers series (The Wall Street Journal).
George MacDonald Fraser was famed for his legendary series, featuring the incorrigible knave Harry Flashman. In the colorful standalone novel Captain in Calico, a never-before-published literary find, Fraser introduces another real-life anti-hero: Captain John Rackham, called “Calico Jack,” an illustrious eighteenth-century pirate who marauded the Caribbean seas.
On a tranquil evening in the Bahamas, Calico Jack, long wanted on counts of piracy, makes a surprise appearance at the Governor’s residence and asks for a pardon. A deal is brokered after Jack reveals the motive for turning himself in: love. When he last set sail from the Bahamas two years ago, Jack left behind a beautiful fiancée, and he hopes to win her back. But while Jack was off pirating, his beloved has become betrothed to a new man—the governor himself. It doesn’t take long for this truth to come to light, and after embarking on a new romance with famous Irish pirate Anne Bonney, Jack is quickly transformed back into a thieving captain in calico.
With his trademark picaresque style, Fraser draws readers into the wild west of the British empire, where black sails prowl the waters and redemption can be found in the most unexpected places.
“[An] energetic tale of piracy and peril . . . Suspenseful.” —Publishers Weekly
