Keegan is back at sea in the days of tall ships and high adventure. It's an age when sail and steam are at war. The thousand-year tradition of the tall ships is coming to an end. Men like Bill Ryan and Jim Hale are caught in the jaws of change, in a world where survival depends on courage, strength and a willingness to take terrible risks. 1862, on the English coast: the railway has destroyed the coastal shipping trade; lines like Eastcoast Packet are dying. Jim is about to inherit Eastcoast and the schooner Spindrift ... if he and Captain Bill Ryan can survive the explosive North Sea storms, and the schemes of the shipwrecker, Nathan Kerr. Always dangerous, Kerr has a score to settle with them. For men who have the courage to love in this time and place, the struggle is dire, the rewards astonishing. Meticulously researched, fabulously detailed, THE DECEIVERS will be treasured by readers who loved 'Fortunes of War.' WINNER OF THE 2003 STONEWALL FACT AND FABLE AWARD.