Ruth Fletcher, recently widowed, leaves the isolated island of St Helena in 1844, seeking a new life. She plans to marry the captain of HMS Intrepid who has offered her passage on his frigate to Europe on completion of their anti-slavery patrols. What promised to be a routine cruise rapidly descends into a battle with slavers and Ruth is introduced to the ships doctor and the treatment of his injured patients. Her interest in medicine grows despite the profession being exclusively male. Ruth leaves the security of the frigate and her life swiftly spirals out of her control and into the hands of others. She fights for control of her identity, but is then obliged to confront the ultimate test; to protect the lives of those she loves or disobey the most fundamental injunction of the Hippocratic Oath. Tom Fox is a nom de plume for a retired surgeon. This is his third novel. He lives in the Midlands with his wife and has three grown up children.