The secrets of the past have deadly consequences. As far as the police are concerned the brutal murder of Ann Kennedy is an open and shut case. The knife-wielding attacker is the dead woman's son, Fergal Kennedy. But Tara Ross is not convinced. All her instincts as an investigative journalist tell her that they are wrong. And there is an added complication-- Tara and Fergal are lovers. Determined to find the real truth Tara sets out on the trail of the killer -- a dangerous chase which leads her from a squalid drug den in Dublin, to an artist's studio in Montmartre in Paris, and an involvement with the mysterious Estonian, Andres Talimann. A compelling story of murder, betrayal and family secrets that will keep the reader guessing to the very end.

Stone Heart

Literature & Fiction

Ekin, Des

Genre Fiction

The O'Brien Press

The Stolen Village: A Thrilling Account of the 17th-century Raid on Ireland by the Barbary Pirates

Fall_River_Press

The story of the last great naval battle between England and Spain, evoking a number of colorful and dangerous personalities who fought in the climactic conclusion to these two countries’ great rivalry on the sea. Ireland: Christmas Eve, 1601. As thunder crashes and lightning rakes the sky, three very different commanders line up for a battle that will decide the fate of a nation. General Juan del Águila has been sprung from a prison cell to command the last great Spanish armada. His mission: to seize a bridgehead in Queen Elizabeth's England and hold it. Facing him is Charles Blount, a brilliant English strategist whose career is also under a cloud. His affair with a married woman edged him into a treasonous conspiracy―and brought him to within a hair’s breadth of the gallows. Meanwhile, Irish insurgent Hugh O’Neill knows that this is his final chance to drive the English out of Ireland. For each man, this is the last throw of the dice. Tomorrow they will be either heroes or failures. These colorful commanders come alive in this true story of courage and endurance, of bitterness and betrayal, and of drama and intrigue at the highest levels in the courts of England and Spain.

The Last Armada: Queen Elizabeth, Juan del Águila, and Hugh O'Neill: The Story of the 100-Day Spanish Invasion

History

Europe

Pegasus Books

In 1785, just a few years after U.S. Independence, a young American named James Leander Cathcart is kidnapped at sea and carried as prisoner to the maverick North African statelet of Algiers, where he is held as a political hostage along with hundreds of other seamen captured on the open seas. The piratical corsairs of Algiers have decided, without any warning, to exploit the vulnerability of the newborn United States by seizing its mariners and holding them for ransom while ruthlessly exploiting their free labor. Today, the name of James Leander Cathcart has been all but forgotten by history. And yet he was one of the most remarkable figures in the early story of the fledgling United States. 
The Lionkeeper of Algiers reveals the extraordinary and unlikely story of Cathcart, who, thanks to his flair for languages and his formidable human intuition, rose steadily up the ranks from lionkeeper at the Dey’s private zoo to become Chief Clerk at the Palace, along the way amassing a chain of taverns in Algiers that functioned as safe houses and food banks for American prisoners. 
Eleven years later, just one among more than one hundred US hostages in Algiers, Cathcart was paroled back to America and charged with delivering a vital letter to President George Washington, saving a tenuous peace deal and bringing the other captives home. Remarkably, his sense of honor compelled him to go back to Algiers – where he had never formally been made free – to see the peace project through. Cathcart would go on to become a U.S. diplomat in the lands where he was held captive for more than a decade. 
Featuring some of the most prominent Americans of the era like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, as well as ordinary citizens like Hannah Stephens, the wife of a sea captain who tirelessly lobbied Congress until she was finally reunited with her husband after more than a decade, author Des Ekin’s captivating storytelling brings this adventure to life. This page-turning narrative follows the twists and turns of Cathcart’s own life upon the international stage of diplomacy, trade, and maritime statecraft at a time when America’s place in the world was hanging in the balance.

The Lionkeeper of Algiers: How an American Captive Rose to Power in Barbary and Saved His Homeland from War

Americas

Prometheus

Bloodthirsty buccaneers and buried treasure, fierce sea battles and cold-blooded murders, Barbary ducats and silver pieces of eight. 
Des Ekin embarks on a roadtrip around the entire coast of Ireland, in search of our piratical heritage, uncovering an amazing history of swashbuckling bandits, both Irish-born and imported. 
Ireland’s Pirate Trail tells stories of freebooters and pirates from every corner of our coast over a thousand years, including famous pirates like Anne Bonny and William Lamport, who set off to ply their trade in the Caribbean. Ekin also debunks many myths about our most well-known sea warrior, Granuaile, the ‘Pirate Queen’ of Mayo. Thoroughly researched and beautifully told. Filled with exciting untold stories.

Ireland's Pirate Trail: A Quest to Uncover Our Swashbuckling Past

The Brutish Empire: Four Centuries of Colonial Atrocities

In June 1631 pirates from Algiers and armed troops of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, led by the notorious pirate captain Morat Rais, stormed ashore at the little harbour village of Baltimore in West Cork. They captured almost all the villagers and bore them away to a life of slavery in North Africa. The prisoners were destined for a variety of fates -- some would live out their days chained to the oars as galley slaves, while others would spend long years in the scented seclusion of the harem or within the walls of the Sultan's palace. The old city of Algiers, with its narrow streets, intense heat and lively trade, was a melting pot where the villagers would join slaves and freemen of many nationalities. Only two of them ever saw Ireland again. The Sack of Baltimore was the most devastating invasion ever mounted by Islamist forces on Ireland or England. Des Ekin's exhaustive research illuminates the political intrigues that ensured the captives were left to their fate, and provides a vivid insight into the kind of life that would have awaited the slaves amid the souks and seraglios of old Algiers. The Stolen Village is a fascinating tale of international piracy and culture clash nearly 400 years ago and is the first book to cover this relatively unknown and under-researched incident in Irish history. Shortlisted for the Argosy Irish Nonfiction Book of the Year Award

The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates

Bloodthirsty buccaneers and buried treasure, fierce sea battles and cold-blooded murders, Barbary ducats and silver pieces of eight. Des Ekin embarks on a roadtrip around the entire coast of Ireland, in search of our piratical heritage, uncovering an amazing history of swashbuckling bandits, both Irish-born and imported. Ireland's Pirate Trail tells stories of freebooters and pirates from every corner of our coast over a thousand years, including famous pirates like Anne Bonny and William Lamport, who set off to ply their trade in the Caribbean. Ekin also debunks many myths about our most well-known sea warrior, Granuaile, the 'Pirate Queen' of Mayo. Thoroughly researched and beautifully told. Filled with exciting untold stories.

Kinsale, Ireland: Christmas Eve, 1601 As thunder crashes and lightning rakes the sky, three very different commanders line up for a battle that will decide the fate of a nation. General Juan del Águila has been sprung from a prison cell to command the last great Spanish Armada. Its mission: to seize a bridgehead in Queen Elizabeth's territory and hold it. Facing him is Charles Blount, a brilliant English strategist whose career is also under a cloud. His affair with a married woman edged him into a treasonous conspiracy - and brought him to within a hair's breadth of the gallows. Meanwhile, Irish insurgent Hugh O'Neill knows that this is his final chance to drive the English out of Ireland. For each man, this is the last throw of the dice. Tomorrow they will be either heroes - or has-beens. These colourful commanders come alive in this true-life story of courage and endurance, of bitterness and betrayal, and of intrigue at the highest levels in the courts of England and Spain. Praise for The Stolen Village '...a harrowing tale that sheds light on the little-known trade in white slaves ... a fascinating exploration of a forgotten chapter of British and European history' Giles Milton - BBC History Magazine

Hell or Some Worse Place: Kinsale 1601

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ekin, Des. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Ekin, Des

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ekin, Des. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Stone Heart

The Stolen Village: A Thrilling Account of the 17th-century Raid on Ireland by the Barbary Pirates

The Last Armada: Queen Elizabeth, Juan del Águila, and Hugh O'Neill: The Story of the 100-Day Spanish Invasion

The Lionkeeper of Algiers: How an American Captive Rose to Power in Barbary and Saved His Homeland from War

The Last Armada: Queen Elizabeth, Juan del Águila, and Hugh O'Neill: The Story of the 100-Day Spanish Invasion

Ireland's Pirate Trail: A Quest to Uncover Our Swashbuckling Past

The Brutish Empire: Four Centuries of Colonial Atrocities

The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates

Ireland's Pirate Trail: A Quest to Uncover Our Swashbuckling Past

Hell or Some Worse Place: Kinsale 1601