The Tiger’s Prey

Africa, Arabia and India at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Francis Courtney leaves Devon after his stepfather’s debts destroy the security of his estate and travels to the Cape intending to confront his uncle Tom, whom he blames for his father’s death. The truth he discovers unsettles his plans for revenge but does not remove the need to make his own fortune. Elsewhere, Christopher Courtney rejects the protected position available to him as the son of the Governor of Bombay and enters the violent commercial world of the Arabian Sea and Malabar coast.

The two journeys unfold through company settlements, pirate waters and trading communities where European authority is still limited and unstable. Family grievances are intensified by competition for ships, cargoes and political favour, while alliances with Indian and African characters determine who survives. The novel explores an early phase of East India Company expansion before formal British rule, when private merchants and naval adventurers could act as soldiers, diplomats and criminals in the same voyage. As Francis and Christopher’s paths converge, inherited betrayal becomes the force shaping a new Courtney generation.