Golden lion / Wilbur Smith with Giles Kristian.

He saw his father executed in battle. He spent his youth avenging that death. And now Henry 'Hal' Courtney is a man with a ship – and a family – of his own. But fate has not finished with Hal. On a voyage along the eastern shore of Africa, a powerful enemy abducts his wife, the fearless warrior Judith… and with her, Hal's unborn child. For Hal, a man all too familiar with loss, there is only one way forward: He must track his nemesis across desert and ocean, through the slave markets of Zanzibar and the dangerous waters of the coast, in pursuit of the woman he loves, the child he sired, and the glorious destiny that awaits him -- from publisher's website.

In this epic African adventure, Wilbur Smith returns to his longest-running series - and the very beginnings of the Courtney family saga in the late seventeenth century - with co-author Giles Kristian. Golden Lion follows Hal Courtney's adventures after the Christians have routed the Muslim invaders in Ethiopia in the mid-seventeenth century. And though conflicts still rage, Hal will face a much more personal enemy bent on revenge. Wilbur Smith burst onto the international scene in 1964 with his debut novel, when the lion feeds, which introduced the Courtney family to readers around the world. Subsequent Courtney novels traced the fortunes, and misfortunes, of this sprawling, ambitious family, from the dawn of the 18th century to the late 20th century, from Natal in South Africa through Rhodesia and up through East Africa. Henry 'Hal' Courtney has always lived at sea. He watched his own father executed during the Anglo-Dutch naval war, and spent his entire young adulthood avenging his father's death. Now a truce has been made between the warring countries and Hal is captain of his own ship - the Golden Bough. From the slave markets of Zanzibar to the pirate-riddled waters of the Indian Ocean, Hal leads his crew in and out of the waves of danger. But he soon realizes that just because the war is over, does not mean the battle is won, and the more a man achieves, the more he has to lose -- from publisher's website.