The Determined

A historical fiction novel based on the real lives of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two women of the Golden Age of Pirates. In 1721 Jamaica, the captured and pregnant 23-year-old Anne Bonny faces execution. She agrees to tell her story to writer Captain Charles Johnson in exchange for medical help for her imprisoned friend Mary Read, who is ill with prison fever. Before their arrest, both women had found freedom at sea that was unavailable to them on land. Anne, born into scandal in Ireland, had sought safety in South Carolina before making a difficult bargain for passage to the Bahamas. Mary, an illegitimate daughter in England, had disguised herself as a cabin boy to join a merchant crew, later serving in the cavalry. When their paths cross in Nassau, they find kinship aboard the Revenge, the fastest ship in the Caribbean. As the governor pursues them, each raid increases their danger. The novel follows Anne and Mary from the high seas to a Jamaican prison as they face impossible choices in their pursuit of freedom.