From debut author Hope Adams comes a gripping novel based on the 1841 voyage of the convict ship Rajah about confinement, hope, and the terrible things we do to survive.

Nearly two hundred condemned women board a transport ship bound for Australia. One of them is a murderer.

London, 1841. One hundred eighty Englishwomen file aboard the Rajah, embarking on a three-month voyage to the other side of the world.

They’re daughters, sisters, mothers—and convicts.

Transported for petty crimes.

Except one of them has a deadly secret, and will do anything to flee justice.

As the Rajah sails farther from land, the women forge a tenuous kinship. Until, in the middle of the cold and unforgiving sea, a young mother is mortally wounded, and the hunt is on for the assailant before they strike again.

Each woman called for questioning has something to fear: Will she be attacked next? Will she be believed? Because far from land, there is nowhere to flee, and how can you prove innocence when you’ve already been found guilty?