Mantle unveils ‘epic’ third novel in Kate Mosse’s Joubert Family Chronicles

Mantle is to publish the third title in Kate Mosse’s The Joubert Family Chronicles series in July 2023.

Maria Rejt, publisher, acquired UK publishing rights to The Ghost Ship from Mark Lucas at The Soho Agency for publication on 6th July 2023 in hardback, e-book and audio. Minotaur will publish simultaneously in the US.

The Ghost Ship—which follows The Burning Chambers and The City of Tears—is described by the publisher as “an epic tale of courageous women battling to survive in a man’s world, of vengeance and breathtaking peril on the high seas, of long-buried family secrets and a love story spanning three generations”.

Its synopsis goes on: “The Barbary Coast, 1621. A mysterious vessel silently rides the swell. She is known only as the Ghost Ship. For these past months, her crew has fought to liberate those enslaved by corsairs. But the two bravest mariners on board are not who they seem. And the stakes could not be higher: if captured, they will be hanged for their alleged crimes…”

The Founder of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and recently launched Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, Mosse is an award-winning novelist, playwright, essayist and non-fiction writer. Her most recent feminist non-fiction book, Warrior Queens and Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World (Mantle, October 2022), is now the basis for a one-woman theatre show.

Mosse said: “I’m delighted that Mantle will be publishing my gender-swapping story of love and adventure at sea. The Ghost Ship has been a delight to work on from start to finish.”

Rejt said: “The Ghost Ship is a tale of defiant women in a man’s world.” Mosse has sold 2.85 million books for £18.2m according to TCM UK BookScan, with Labyrinth her bestseller at 1.09 million copies sold.