SYNOPSIS:

A PIRATE'S CONFESSION is currently a novel, scheduled for publication in the U.K. and worldwide in 2014. It explores the psychology of trauma and dissociation, using the sinister world of piracy to dig at the roots of human folly and redemption. Readers of Joseph Conrad may see a similarity in the pursuit of a spiritual quest within an adventure-land setting. In 1792, King Gustav III is assassinated at the Royal Opera in Stockholm. In the wake of this infamous conspiracy, Swedish settlers on the West Indian island of St. Barth are visited by Olof, an officer in the king’s Royal Guard. He has come to wed Cecilia, the magistrate’s daughter, and begin a new life with her in America. However, their voyage takes quite another course. In those same waters, some years later, an English merchant ship is plundered and looted by pirates. Glenda, a young Englishwoman on her way to gainful employment as governess, becomes a captive and special protégé of the pirate chief Leclair. At his island hideaway, Leclair keeps her for himself, subjecting her to a bizarre, voyeuristic interrogation. She doesn’t know what to make of this ruffian who spouts Rousseau and eschews the decadence of Europe. Forced to accompany the pirates on their onward exploits, Glenda learns to survive Leclair’s mercurial fits of venom and attempts to unravel what it is he needs from her. As the unravelling begins, the reader is admitted into the world of Olof’s long-buried secret. At the time of his arrival, he was actually on the run for conspiring to the royal murder in Sweden. On his honeymoon voyage from St. Barth to America, the ship was seized by pirates, making him a hidden witness to the cunning rape and murder of Cecilia. When discovered, Olof was led to his execution. On the gangplank, however, a shaft of lightning struck him and saved him from the pirate’s bullet as he was swept away into deep water. Miraculously found and nursed back to life by an old shepherd who doubles as ship’s cook to the pirates, Olof is a changed man. He walks back into the pirates’ lair, proclaiming himself their chief. He has reinvented himself as Leclair. Whereas Cecilia’s victimhood is palpable and obvious, Olof’s trauma is less known, even to himself. Only Glenda, years later, is able to illuminate it for him. Olof re-discovers the seat of his buried pain and turns against his own men to avenge his slaughtered bride and his own slaughtered innocence. To escape the King’s soldiers, Olof vanishes and Glenda sets sail for England - afflicted with an unexpected sense of loss.