Welcome to the world of Joshua Smoot-the bastard son of Treasure Island's John Flint. From the first page of John Flint's Bastard to the last, you will experience the full spectrum of love versus hate, loyalty versus betrayal, freedom versus slavery, and the extremes of mankind's goodness and evil toward one another.

The old pirate Captain John Flint-the evil benefactor of Savannah-finally spawns a manchild by one of his concubines. To fulfill the last wish of the lad's mother, Flint promises to raise Joshua as a gentleman rather than make him a pirate, and to accomplish this task, he delivers the eight-year-old lad to the Wakehurst Place Estate in southern England where Joshua's stubborn spirit forces him into an ultimatum that tests his will and eventually earns him two King's warrants for his head.

During his run from the King, Joshua meets and falls in love with Rebecca Keyes-a young girl with a stronger will than his own. Their rocky relationship culminates with Rebecca being forced to make a life-and-death decision that will affect Joshua's course for the rest of his life.

If you like fast-paced, white-knuckled, edge-of-seat pirate adventure novels, then take your seat at the literary dining table, pick up your knife and fork, and open to chapter one of this delicious banquet called John Flint's Bastard. And when you finish, you'll want to go back to that same bookseller and buy the second in the Of Chains and Slavery trilogy, Slavery and Revenge.