The Sea of the Vanities

The ocean is vast and deep. What lurks beneath can tear boats asunder.

Richard Shaw, an insurance investigator from Lloyds of London, arrives in Rio de Janeiro in 1851. He is there to discover why so many of the great sailing ships of the world are disappearing in the south Atlantic, never making it to or from the Pacific Ocean.

From each side of the continent, two ships set sail: one helmed by Captain Peech to hunt for treasure and the other ferrying passengers like Cassandra Coulter, who on...