Set in the early 1700s, this fictional account of the pirate Samuel Bellamy chronicles his lust for gold; for the accused witch, Mariah Hallett; and for the treasure ship, the Whydah. Sam Bellamy's simple quest to find enough lost Spanish treasure to offer Mariah a secure future quickly becomes an insatiable desire for gold. For eighteen months he sails the Caribbean under the black flag, allowing this means to an end-this sweet trade of piracy-to claim him. In February, 1717, he seizes the Whydah, a slave ship returning to England with incredible riches in her hold. With more than enough plunder to line his pockets, he turns the Whydah north to Cape Cod and his greatest prize, Mariah. While Sam is away, Mariah Hallett's secret is discovered and she is not only charged with murder, but faces accusations of witchcraft, as well. Confronting a harsh winter and an uncertain future, she struggles to survive alone on the rough Cape Cod moor that edges the sea. With unshakable faith that Sam will return to her, she walks the cliffs overlooking the wild Atlantic and watches for his ship.

Anne Bonny, a pampered Southern belle, hungers for a life more exciting and dangerous than she knows keeping her father's household together. When she convinces a hapless sailor boy to marry her and take her to Nassau, that seething cauldron of piracy, prostitution and all things wicked, she alters the course of her life forever. . . Calico Jack Rackham, a devious pirate, returns to Nassau with hopes of accepting the governor's pardon and leaving the sweet trade. When he first lays eyes on Anne Bonny, however, he realizes that she is the one woman who could convince him to put aside his fear of the noose and take up the trade again, no matter what the consequences. And Mary Read, a sensible Englishwoman who has been living as a man and earning her livelihood as a merchant sailor, must make a decision when her ship is overtaken by Calico Jack and she is invited to join the band of thieves. When she tastes the freedom of a pirate's life, she realizes what she has been missing during all her years of toil... and when she joins forces with Anne, they form a union that will carry them to the ends of the earth, through births, deaths, and battles more exciting than even Anne Bonny could have dreamed.

History of the first British colony in the West Indies.

In 1670 Henry Morgan sacked the city of Panama with an army of 2500 pirates, buccaneers and adventurers. This is the story of one of them...Orphaned young by Spaniards who raid his Caribbean island home, Dirk van Cortlandt enters piracy-the Sweet Trade-to seek revenge. His ambitious violence wins him a captaincy, but with that power come responsibilities, and he must accept that to be a man he must have more than size, strength and skill with a cutlass. Then, for the sake of a girl he hopes to marry, he joins Morgan's raid on Panama. The voyage, meant to be Dirk's last, endangers his ship, his friends and beloved, and brings him face to face with the personal weakness that may prove fatal to them all.

One of the 1990s' rising stars of crime fiction delivers a bold, brilliant tale of mystery, revenge, and survival in the 1980s, when cocaine and money ruled the city streets and even the good guys wanted a piece of the action.

To know the Sweet Potato Queens is to love them, and if you haven't heard about them yet, you will. Since the early 1980s, this group of belles gone bad has been the toast of Jackson, Mississippi, with their glorious annual appearance in the St. Patrick's Day parade. In The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love, their royal ringleader, Jill Conner Browne, introduces the Queens to the world with this sly, hilarious manifesto about love, life, men, and the importance of being prepared. Chapters include: • The True Magic Words Guaranteed to Get Any Man to Do Your Bidding • The Five Men You Must Have in Your Life at All Times • Men Who May Need Killing, Quite Frankly • What to Eat When Tragedy Strikes, or Just for Entertainment • The Best Advice Ever Given in the Entire History of the World From tales of the infamous Sweet Potato Queens' Promise to the joys of Chocolate Stuff and Fat Mama's Knock You Naked Margaritas, this irreverent, shamelessly funny book is the gen-u-wine article.