The Ghost Ship

This is the third novel by Mosse about the Huguenot diaspora of the 17th century (following The City of Tears), when French Protestants fled France for Amsterdam and other points west after the death of their protector, Henry IV, and the renewal of their religious persecution. The book’s starting point is May 13, 1610. Louise Reydon-Joubert, newly 25, accepts her dead father’s inheritance. The next day, the French king, Henry IV, is assassinated by a Catholic fanatic. Louise removes herself to La Rochelle, bastion of the Huguenot faith, where she buys a ship. She befriends a young man, Gilles, who’s really a disguised woman, and they’re soon attracted to each other. When Gilles’s mother appears and tries to extort him, there’s a tussle. Louise stabs her, and she and Gilles flee before anyone finds out. On board ship, there’s another murder (not by Louise), of the ship’s captain. Louise is now captain of her own vessel, the Ghost Ship. Gilles, Louise, and the ship’s crew end up attacking corsairs along the west coast of Africa to liberate enslaved people. The story stretches but doesn’t rupture the bounds of historical realism, and Mosse tells it well. The ending, however, is anticlimactic.