An aristocrat thirsting for adventure meets a legendary pirate woman who appears to be involved in a rash of hauntings. Volume 1 of 2. The peace of Mordwick, a small coastal village, is shattered by the news that mysterious individuals have come ashore to dig up the recently departed. They looked like pirates, and rumours swell that the infamous captain Black Mary, a legendary, freedom-loving marauder desperately wanted by the Royal Navy, is involved. Could she be the cause of a wave of spectral apparitions sweeping through the kingdom – including that of the ghost of the recently departed king himself?

Rescued at sea by Black Mary, Lord James, the libertine aristocrat who longed for adventure, is utterly enthralled by the fierce pirate captain – enough so that when she boards a royal warship, he chooses to fight at her side. With her ship badly damaged, though, Mary must return to her hidden base, an island not on any map. For good reason: the inhabitants of the island are … the men and women who died at sea, and remain there until it is time to move on to the afterlife …