Stolen
Devon in the early seventeenth century. Lizbet Warren is on a mission to find her parents who have been captured by pirates. At first this might seem an unlikely tale, perhaps a little far-fetched, but few people realise that piracy off the English coast was a real danger – and captivity for potential sale into slavery in North Africa by the Barberry Corsairs was a very common occurrence.
Nineteen-year-old Lizbet lives with her family in a small Devon fishing village. She heads off to market and returns home to discover her village has been cruelly raided by pirates and her parents gone. She sets out, determined to find her mother and father – and without giving any spoilers away, does whatever she has to do in order to achieve her goal.
With well-written scenes aboard ship, and locations spanning from Devon to London, to Morocco and Barbados, Stolen covers quite a few miles. It is an exciting read with well-drawn characters, plenty of action, and is sympathetic to the time period. The characters do not have our modern morals and the story well conveys the hardship, even barbarity, of life as a white slave. And yes, there were white slaves in the early years of the Colonies before the Black Slave Trade became more profitable. Sheila Dalton does not pull her punches, her research is well undertaken but not intrusive, and she portrays life in this dark period of atrocity towards personal freedom with skilful dexterity.
The regional accent use was perhaps a little niggling in places, but I am being picky; a good entertaining read.
e-edition reviewed
