Late one night in the fall of 1798 a solitary figure enters the Great Pyramid Cheops. Napoleon Bonaparte. He will spend the night there alone. Not only because he can, now that he’s conquered Egypt, but to confront the deities as an equal, and as one who also claims immortality. Bonaparte never tells anyone what took place in the Great Pyramid. At least not until the spring of 1821, when Bonaparte is dying while in exile on the remote island of Saint Helena, and Sailing Master Owen Harriet is there to bear witness and record the tyrant’s final moments. But while in Bonaparte’s death chamber, Owen confronts a phantom who claims to be from the Great Pyramid, and who now inhabits Napoleon’s memory. Thus begins Gods of Clay—Book Four of the Sailing Master series.
While on Saint Helena, Owen also comes upon three conflicted souls who will impact his life.
Ezra, the young orphan boy who will speak to no one. A child savant burdened with the profound gift of drawing from the mind’s eye. Enduring images that depict the ancient past, as well as the distant future.
Song Li, an estranged Buddhist nun from the Indochine, who becomes Ezra’s au pair, but then releases the boy into Owen’s care when she’s compelled to answer her true calling.
Peg Carmichael, Owen’ baby sister, abandoned as an infant, but whose letter has finally reached Owen while he serves on HMS Eleanor. She entreats him to come find her in Halifax, and enlighten her to what she was denied as a child.
All while the drums of war thunder in the distance, as the Greeks fight for their independence from the Ottoman Empire. A conflict that slowly, but inexorably draws Owen Harriet into the fog of war.