Passage to Moorea

 Passage to Moorea is set in 1872, when Civil War hero and adventurer Thomas Scoundrel is working as an investigative journalist in San Francisco. When he pens an exposé of a powerful businessman and is marked for death, he is forced to travel half way around the world to begin a new life. From the turquoise blue waters of Polynesia to the dangerous alleys of New York's Five Points, he risks everything for his friends and the woman he loves. He stows away on a warship bound for Hawaii, wins a sugar plantation in a poker hand, and battles missionary bankers, loan-collecting Tahitian warriors, Irish gang leaders, a ruthless assassin and the most powerful figures in the world of fine art. He swims in a moonlit tropical lagoon with the Princess of the Kingdom of Hawai'i, engages in hand-to-hand combat with a legendary South Seas fighter, trades stories with Jules Verne and Ulysses S. Grant, and, in true Scoundrel style, enjoys gourmet dining and fine wine in exotic locales around the world.