The Broken Sword

Halifax, 1941. Reeling from his sister's death, seventeen-year-old Patrick MacQueen lies about his age to escape into the only future he can imagine: a soldier's uniform. But the war that shapes him will test more than his courage.

Recovering from a training accident in colonial Bermuda, Patrick falls under the spell of Lady Lemonton — a beautiful, worldly woman whose sympathies lie with the enemy, and who sees in him a soul worth winning to her cause. He escapes her orbit for the North Atlantic, where as a young Royal Canadian Navy officer he learns the true cost of duty hunting U-boats through the convoys' darkest years. But on leave in Ireland, Lady Lemonton finds him again.

By war's end, tempered by loss and command, Patrick faces his gravest test yet — not from an enemy abroad, but from his own government. Posted to St. John's as Newfoundland weighs its future, he is drawn into a secret conspiracy to defend a small dominion's right to choose its own fate. Torn between the oath he swore and the honour he was raised to keep, he must decide what a man owes his country — and what he owes his conscience.

Inspired by real events and a wartime generation, The Broken Sword is a sweeping coming-of-age saga of temptation, loyalty, and the price of principle — from convoy duty in the Battle of the Atlantic to a forgotten act of defiance on Newfoundland's road to Confederation.


About the Author

Capt. the Chevalier Richard Mingo Sweeney of Bolger’s Park, Lt. RCN (R), Capt. CA (R), GCLJ, KMLJ, OL, was born on October 29, 1922 in Trochu, Alberta. During the Great Depression, his family moved to Bermuda. In 1939, he joined the Canadian Army and later the Royal Canadian Navy and was commissioned a Lieutenant in 1942. He served as Gunnery Officer during the Battle of the Atlantic on board the HMCS Trillium. He was then given command of the Port Security Guard in St. John’s, Newfoundland, from 1943-46. Following the war, he joined the Cadet Corps in Quebec and attained the rank of Captain. He went on to produce feature films in Canada and serve as military consultant for television and radio in New York City. Later, he moved to Pictou, Nova Scotia, and established a historical association, the St. Suibhne Trust . A writer and historian, his publications include Sween (Suibhne), Clan of the Battle Axe: A Brief History of the MacSweeney Galloglass, and Scots Empire: Beinge the Storie of the Kingdom of Scotland's Briefe Empire: the Lordship of Nova Scotia. He died on Remembrance Day, November 11, 2015.