Keith Thomson

The Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune

Born to Be Hanged

The True Story of an Obsessive Quest for el Dorado, the Legendary City of Gold

Paradise of the Damned

Discovering that his apartment has been blown up by would-be killers, gambler Charlie Clark figures out that his Alzheimer's patient father was once a spy for the CIA and was part of an operation that sold faulty nuclear technology to terrorists.

Once a Spy

Discover the “fascinating and outrageously readable” account of the roguish acts of the first pirates to raid the Pacific in a crusade that ended in a sensational trial back in England—perfect for readers of Nathaniel Philbrick and David McCullough (Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lost City of the Monkey God) The year is 1680, in the heart of the Golden Age of Piracy, and more than three hundred daring, hardened pirates—a potent mix of low-life scallywags and a rare breed of gentlemen buccaneers—gather on a remote Caribbean island. The plan: to wreak havoc on the Pacific coastline, raiding cities, mines, and merchant ships. The booty: the bright gleam of Spanish gold and the chance to become legends. So begins one of the greatest piratical adventures of the era—a story not given its full due until now. Inspired by the intrepid forays of pirate turned Jamaican governor Captain Henry Morgan—yes, that Captain Morgan—the company crosses Panama on foot, slashing its way through the Darien Isthmus, one of the thickest jungles on the planet, and liberating a native princess along the way. After reaching the South Sea, the buccaneers, primarily Englishmen, plunder the Spanish Main in a series of historic assaults, often prevailing against staggering odds and superior firepower. A collective shudder racks the western coastline of South America as the English pirates, waging a kind of proxy war against the Spaniards, gleefully undertake a brief reign over Pacific waters, marauding up and down the continent. With novelistic prose and a rip-roaring sense of adventure, Keith Thomson guides us through the pirates’ legendary two-year odyssey. We witness the buccaneers evading Indigenous tribes, Spanish conquistadors, and sometimes even their own English countrymen, all with the ever-present threat of the gallows for anyone captured. By fusing contemporaneous accounts with intensive research and previously unknown primary sources, Born to Be Hanged offers a rollicking account of one of the most astonishing pirate expeditions of all time.

A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Fossils

After his apartment is blown up by would-be killers, Charlie learns that his father, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, used to be a spy for the CIA and part of an operation that sold faulty nuclear technology to terrorists.

A brand-new heart-pounding technothriller from Keith Thomson, acclaimed author of ONCE A SPY. Russ Thornton is a hard-hitting journalist known for his ability to take on big targets in government and in business. An old flame, now a Capitol Hill staffer, contacts him out of the blue wanting to disclose some top-secret information. But she is gunned down in cold blood, right in front of him. Worse, the killers are concerned about what Thornton knows, and who he may tell. He finds himself in a game of cat-and-mouse, where the stakes are life and death and the surveillance technology is so sophisticated that he wouldn’t believe it existed—if it weren't implanted in his own head.

Seven Grams of Lead

On the heels of Once a Spy, which PW hailed as a “wildly original debut [with] an action-packed story line,” Keith Thomson returns with a breakneck thriller that’s twice as explosive as the original. In the tradition of Robert Ludlum, with a witty twist, Thomson’s second novel featuring a former spy and his son once again poses the question: What happens when a former CIA agent can no longer trust his own mind? Charlie and Drummond Clark are now in Switzerland, hiding out from criminal charges in America and using the time to experiment with treatments to retrieve Drummond’s memory. When NSA operative Alice Rutherford, with whom Charlie has fallen in love, is kidnapped, the Clarks must dodge a formidable CIA case officer and his team to get her back.

A Novel

Twice a Spy

Unaware of his pirate ancestry and his clan's long-standing rivalry with the Hood family, accountant Morgan Cooke is shanghaied by his estranged father and placed at the forefront of the families' latest clash in the Caribbean, which is marked by the promise of a vast treasure. A first novel. 20,000 first printing.

Pirates of Pensacola

Highlighted by the author's scrimshaw illustrations, a zany new novel by the author of Pirates of Pensacola chronicles cat-food cannery worker Gus Openshaw's obsessive quest to find and kill the huge whale that had eaten his wife, child, and arm during an unprovoked attack.

Keith Thomson

About

Books

Join the club