Pirates! This word often brings to mind the popular image of swashbuckling heroes such as “Blackbeard” and his contemporaries, but some of the earliest known Pirates were women and one of them was none other than King Alfred the Great’s daughter; the Princess Aethelflaed. After the King’s death, the Princess took control of the embryo Royal Navy and took up the cause of ridding the British shores of the Viking threat, often using viciously brutal methods.

In this, the third book in the Reluctant Warrior series, Hild, Ranulf’s widow, is pushed into a seafaring life after escaping from charges of Witchcraft and from being subjected to the vilest of medieval public executions. Burnt alive while tied to a stake.

She is innocent of course, but is still pursued by the Pirate Princess who has vowed to take vengeance and to reclaim the Navy’s warship; the Sir Ranulf. Hild and her crew run the gauntlet between Viking and Princess with several sea battles and other confrontations on land.

The story is a fast moving action adventure, with a sprinkling of violence and sex, but told as it must have been in those dark days of history.