1872 From the turquoise blue waters of Polynesia to the grimy alleys of New York City, the chase is on. Civil War hero and adventurer Thomas Scoundrel is working as an investigative journalist in San Francisco, where he pens an expos of a powerful businessman and is marked for death. He stows away on a warship bound for Hawai'i, wins a sugar plantation in a poker hand, and battles missionary bankers, loan-collecting Tahitian warriors, Irish gang leaders, a ruthless assassin and the most powerful figures in the world of fine art. From a starlit swim in a cobalt lagoon with the Princess of the Kingdom of Hawaii, to hand-to-hand combat with a legendary South Seas fighter, and a race to stay a step ahead of the growing number of killers bent on seeing him dead, Thomas risks everything for his friends and the woman he loves. Along the way he trades stories with Jules Verne and Ulysses S. Grant, plays a leading role in the birth of Impressionistic art, and inspires a young Teddy Roosevelt to break out of his pampered shell and embrace a life of vigorous adventure. Thomas Scoundrel is no stranger to death and danger, but in Passage to Moorea he faces a trial whose devastating consequences will change his life forever
