A mutiny at sea, a decades-long legal battle—To the Brink is the real-life revolutionary epic you didn’t learn in school.

On the afternoon of July 8, 1778, a privateer trolls the coastline of Jamaica, hunting for easy British prey. When a fast-approaching vessel proves to be a British man-o’-war of equal size and strength, the privateer tries to escape. Blocked by the island of Jamaica, a young American captain from East Hartford, Connecticut, turns to fight. What happens next triggers a chain of startling events. Captain Gideon Olmsted’s bravery at sea stirs a political tempest on land. An unlikely encounter with General Benedict Arnold drives this unsuspecting sea captain up against America’s rocky shoals of greed, power, and influence. Incredibly, a long quest for justice pushes a new and fragile republic to the brink. Much more than a sea story, it is a true and epic tale about one privateer’s voyage through early America.