Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key

Subterranean Press is proud to present an exclusive pirate novel by the author of the acclaimed "Company" series.

His name is John James--at least, that's the name he gives to anyone asking. He's a former pirate just back in Port Royal from the sack of Panama, and he has every intention of settling down and leading a respectable life. First, though, he must honor a promise and deliver a letter to the mistress of one of his dead comrades.

But the lady is much more than she seems, and the letter turns out to contain detailed instructions for recovering a hidden fortune. It's one thing to know where treasure may be found; finding it, and keeping it, is quite another. On his quest for a prince's ransom John is joined by two unlikely allies: a black freedman named Sejanus Walker and a humble clerk named Winthrop Tudeley. Pirate attacks, hurricanes, shipwrecks, sharks, unearthly visitations and double-crosses follow. Especially double-crosses...

Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key will be available exclusively from Subterranean Press in two unique editions

Limited: 2000 signed hardcover copies
Lettered: 15 signed leatherbound copies, housed in a custom traycase

From Locus
"The tale is beautifully and ironically told, with a lot of fine invention, such as the subplot of an ex-slave who has embraced rationality but whose ancestral African gods and spirits simply will not leave him alone. At the conclusion John is bereft all over again, perhaps a little wiser, with a further short novel or two possibly on the horizon. Agreeably picaresque stuff."

From Booklist:
"One fine day in 1671, young seaman John James steps into a tavern in Port Royal. Just back from the sack of Panama, he plans to settle down and live respectably in the future. First, he has to deliver a letter to the mistress of a dead comrade... John James is definitely a sadder but wiser man when the tale ends. Baker's characters are convincing and delightful, and the action keeps one flipping pages. As the setting is a time and place in which almost anything could happen, the yarn's fillips of fantasy fit right in."