Blood diamond - Mark Keating

The break-out novel in possibly the best historical series since Sharpe.

The most feared pirate of the day is not usually found among Princes and Ministers of State. But desperate men will go to any lengths to save themselves.

London 1720: a fever of financial speculation. The fraudulent South Sea Company is about to come crashing down with not just the government which backed it but the King as well.

The directors need something to show that the Company is not just a bubble - that it can find the riches their investors were promised: something like the world-famous Pitt Diamond now in the possession of the French Prince Regent.

But how can the Company recover the diamond? They need the most daring criminal they can find. They need a pirate, like Patrick Devlin.

But will he take the job?

From the splendour of London's royal palaces to the filth of Newgate jail, from the salons of the Louvre to desperate hand-to-hand fighting on deck, BLOOD DIAMOND is a thrilling adventure and a sweeping portrait of an age of speculation and wonder.