Born to Be Hanged: The Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune

Novelist Thompson (7 Grams of Lead) makes his nonfiction debut with this swashbuckling account of a 17th-century pirate raid on the Pacific coastline of Spanish South America. Drawing on contemporaneous diaries kept by several of the privateers, Thomson recounts how a group of 366 “Caribbean-based pirates” helped an Indigenous tribe rescue a chief’s daughter who was being held captive by the Spanish on the Isthmus of Panama. After completing the mission, the group made a daring attack on Spanish ships guarding Panama City and raided settlements along the western coast of South America on their way to the Chilean town of Arica, where they hoped to find fabulous wealth. Though the fleet captured several galleons and enough plunder to make them rich, they were repelled at Arica and, after rounding Cape Horn and returning to the Caribbean, three of the pirates, including Capt. Bartholomew Sharp, were captured, brought to trial in England, and acquitted. Thomson unravels the complex relationship between piracy and colonial governments in the Americas, where England and Spain struggled for primacy, and describes local tribes and flora and fauna in meticulous detail. Readers will be swept along by this brisk and entertaining adventure story. Agent: Richard Abate, 3 Arts Entertainment. (Apr.)