Jack Iron

Book excerpt: To save New Orleans from the British, a soldier makes a pact with a pirate In 1815, the fate of the young American nation will be determined at New Orleans. As the British mass their forces at the mouth of the Mississippi, General Andrew Jackson accepts volunteers from all over the country to help defend the Crescent City from invasion. And of all the ragtag men who heed Jackson’s call to arms, there is no fighter fiercer than the swashbuckling adventurer known as Kit McQueen. While surveying fortifications south of the city, Kit is ambushed and then abandoned by his closest friend, who returns to New Orleans to steal away the woman Kit loves. With the British in front of him and a traitorous comrade at his rear, Kit finds an unlikely ally: the pirate king Jean Lafitte. His army of freebooters will give their all to save Kit’s country and rescue his beloved—but what price will these scoundrels demand?