[attach id=481518 size="medium"][/attach]

The last book in Sebastian Debono’s trilogy of historical novels is Il-Furban Malti El Sakr Iżur il-Karibew.

The first novel of the tri-logy unfolds during the reign of Grandmaster Juan D’Omedes. It introduces Peter, an enterprising youth who finds himself duelling with a capricious knight who has killed his parents and raped his sister. He is abruptly chained to a galley oar after being wrongly blamed for the murder of this knight. Peter defiantly confronts several hazards and earns the nickname El Sakr (The Hawk).

He eventually becomes the ruler of Lahar, a small kingdom not much distant from Algiers, where he continues the established tradition of slave-trading. But, when his beautiful, young wife falls victim to an avaricious witchdoctor, El Sakr the pirate bursts into being.

The second book opens with a meeting, in which Pasha Sinan of Algiers and Kapudan Dragut, nicknamed the Terror of Christians, urge El Sakr to join forces with them as they plan to assault the knights in Malta and Libya.

Now, the conclusion to the epic saga finds the Maltese pirate in an audience with Charles V, Emperor of Spain, who rewards the pirate’s heroic intervention in the 1551 siege of Malta by conferring on him the title of Count of Orense. The Church Inquisitor, however, is averse to this appointment as he believes that El Sakr no longer practises the Christian faith. Consequently, he engages three skilled and ruthless guardsmen to waylay and intimidate him – and thus starts the beginning to the end of El Sark’s adventure.

Il-Furban Malti El Sakr Iżur il-Karibew is published by Horizons.