The Smuggler's Longitude

About this book

Seventeen-year-old Finn Calder is a wiry, sharp-eyed anti-hero who survives by running contraband between coastal ports, convinced the world is entirely transactional. Escaping creditors, he forges credentials to secure a berth as a navigator aboard the Ventura, a fifty-foot research schooner crewed by ambitious teenage scientists. Their mission is to map a theoretical 'ghost current' in the South Pacific; Finn's mission is to deliver an encrypted data drive to a remote atoll for a massive payoff. As the voyage progresses, Finn's calculating self-interest is tested by the realities of the open ocean and the quiet courage of his crewmates: an 18-year-old captain buckling under her mother's legacy, a traumatized cartographer, and a physically fragile plankton specialist. When their water supply is sabotaged and they discover a massive, living 'sargassum metropolis' teeming with undocumented life, Finn realizes his encrypted drive contains coordinates that will allow a ruthless mining conglomerate to obliterate the ecosystem. Stranded by a brutal tropical storm, Finn must decide whether to abandon the crew and claim his fortune, or use his criminal instincts to protect the first real home he has ever known.

Book details

Genres:

Adventure, Young Adult Fiction, Maritime Fiction

Language:

en

Published:

2026-06-15

Content rating:

PG-13