The Pit of Despair [signed jhc] Simon R. Green

Captain Varles, of the pirate ship Revenge, is desperate to find a treasure big enough to pay off all his debts. His last venture didn’t work out too well; he lost his whole crew to the ghouls of Ravensbrook. He sailed home on an empty ship, accompanied only by his female first mate Jarryl, and the enigmatic sorcerer Shade, called by some the Hanged Man. Port Crimson is the only settlement on Paradyce Island, where only the ancient rules and traditions of the Red Brotherhood apply. Unable to find a crew there willing to ship out with him, Varles persuades a voodoo witch called Mother Macabre to conjure up a crew of ghosts and dead men to sail in search of the greatest treasure of all—that of Captain Firebeard; who buried his legendary hoard in the great and terrible Pit he dug on Shaft Island . . . which he left surrounded by terrible protections. But Varles’ old enemy, Captain Shatterhand, of the pirate ship Medusa, is also after the treasure. So the race is on; and the devil take the hindmost.

BIO

Rocketed to this planet from his dying homeworld, Simon R. Green has written over forty novels, all of them different. The bestselling author of the Deathstalker books (Star Wars with a plot that makes sense), the Nightside books (a private eye who operates in the Twilight Zone, solving cases of the weird and uncanny), and the Secret Histories books (featuring Shaman Bond, the very secret agent), the author has just completed his first motion picture: Judas Ghost (traditional haunting, in a modern setting). Previously, he has worked as an actor, journalist, shop assistant, and bicycle repair mechanic. He acts in open air Shakespeare productions, rides motorbikes, and is secretly Superman.