The Ghost Ship: An Epic Historical Novel from the Number One Bestselling Author (The Joubert Family Chronicles)

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There's some 200 years between the "current" events in this book and some teasers from the earlier books. I was glad The Ghost Ship works as a standalone, until the end with its cliffhanger, but I think there will be a 4th, thank goodness. Constantly under threat of discovery, the two protagonists must ensure that their secrets, both individual and combined, are hidden well. There is a lot of set-up and background that takes up a majority of the book, so only a quarter of it is really spent on the high seas. Their paths become entwined in the most dramatic way, triggering long buried memories of bloody events in Louise’s own childhood.

This book requires you to read The Burning Chambers and The City of Tears for a proper understanding. The third book in this saga moved at a faster pace than the first two books, and really took me along with it. The Ghost Ship is yet another page turner from Kate Mosse and although part of a trilogy, can be enjoyed as a standalone novel. Fiction includes the multimillion-selling Languedoc Trilogy ( Labyrinth , Sepulchre , Citadel ), The Joubert Family Chronicles ( The Burning Chambers , The City of Tears , The Ghost Ship ), and number one bestselling Gothic fiction including The Taxidermist’s Daughter . Much of the novel takes place on board ship, where murder, storms and pirates mirror Louise’s inner torments.I love Kate Mosse's writing style but unlike her previous works this book doesn't feel like a complete story. Louise has a wish that was considered outlandish at the time, and that is to be captain of her own ship.

As Louise and Gilles lives uncontrollably intertwine, the reader is thrust into a world of intrigue, danger and blackmail. I didn’t want to use the word swashbuckling, but you can’t not when your imagination runs wild, images of ships on the big seas battling it out to come out victorious. She was determined to become not a pirate herself, but the scourge of pirates – a ‘she-captain’, the huntress and hellion of the high seas. Inspired by real-life female pirates, Anne Bonney and Mary Read, The Ghost Ship is the powerful story of Louise Reydon-Joubert, a women who risks everything to protect those she loves. Louise Reydon-Joubert makes a spirited protagonist, determined not to let her gender prevent her achieving her ambition to become captain of her own ship, an ambition she has harboured (if you’ll pardon the pun) ever since her first experience aboard a ship as a young girl.It feels like a slight departure from previous Kate Mosse books, as a large chunk of the story takes place at sea.

The Ghost Ship is the third book in the series following the fortunes – and misfortunes – of various generations of the Joubert family. Louise and Giles begin a relationship, which is modern and refreshing and everything it should be for a female captain in the 1600's looking to change the rules. Readers of the first two books are left hanging as that secondary story in the prologues of the first two books makes no appearance here. Your readers need to trust that you’ve got it right, that they are in safe hands, that I know what I’m talking about. Her lover Gilles Barenton has a complex history and their relationship is one that would be totally untolerated.But now the Ghost Ship is under attack - its hull splintered, its sails tattered and burnt, and the crew at risk of capture. And the plot is an immersive, fascinating tale of life, loss, love, bravery, survival, tragedy, romance, adventure, religion, politics, war, gender fluidity, sacrifice, revenge, the roles of women in 17th century Europe, and the ins and outs of living on a ship. Recommended for anyone who enjoys historical fiction with a strong female protagonist (and pirates).