Running Close to the Wind

<p><b><i>Our Flag Means Death</i></b><b> meets <i>Six of Crows</i> in <i>Running Close to the Wind, </i>a queer pirate adventure from the author of <i>A Taste of Gold and Iron</i>, Alexandra Rowland<i>.</i></b><br><br><b>‘Come for the irrepressible gremlin of a narrator, stay for the plot-relevant cake competitions! A whip-smart, hilarious and exuberant high seas romp’ – Freya Marske, <i>Sunday Times</i> bestselling author of <i>A Marvellous Light</i> </b><br><br>Avra Helvaçi, former field agent of the Arasti Ministry of Intelligence, has accidentally stolen the single most expensive secret in the world – and the only place to flee with a secret that big is the open sea.<br><br>To find a buyer with deep enough pockets, Avra must work with his on-again, off-again ex, the pirate Captain Teveri az-Haffar. Together, they will have to risk journeying to the isolated pirate republic of the Isles of Lost Souls.<br><br>The only things in their way?<br><br>A calculating new Arasti ambassador to the Isles . . .<br><br>Brother Julian, a beautiful, mysterious new member of the crew with secrets of his own . . .<br><br>. . . And the fact that they’re sailing straight into sea-serpent breeding season and almost certain doom.<br><br>But if they can find a way to survive and sell the secret on the black market, they’ll all be as wealthy as kings – and, more importantly, they’ll be <i>legends . . .</i><br><br><b>‘Uproariously funny, exquisitely witty, brimming with buckling of swashes and scuttling of butts’ – Premee Mohamed, Nebula Award-winning author of <i>Beneath the Rising</i></b></p>