In two linked novels, both New York Times best-sellers, Wilbur Smith gives us a story of anger and passion, peace and war -- a story which carries all the powerful drama and rich emotions of a bygone era on the high seas. In Birds of Prey, Smith sets the scene for 1667, when Sir Francis Courteney and his son Hal are on patrol in their fighting caravel off the Agulhas Cape of South Africa. In Monsoon, the Courteney tale continues with Hal, now grown and in command of his own ship.