Swashbuckling Heroines and High Seas Adventures with Novelist Vanessa Riley
January 8, 2026TOMS RIVER – Join award-winning novelist Vanessa Riley as she discusses her newest book, Fire Sword and Sea, at 7 p.m. Thursday, February 5 during a virtual author talk presented by the Ocean County Library.
Fire Sword and Sea takes place in the Caribbean Sea, 1675, and is based on the folk story of the female pirate Jacquotte Delahaye. Jacquotte, the mixed-race daughter of a tavern owner on the island of Tortuga, dreams of joining seafarers and smugglers in the nearby waters. In Haiti, she becomes Jacques, a dockworker, earning the respect of others while hiding her gender.
For the next twenty years, Jacquotte raids the Caribbean, making enemies and amassing a fortune in stolen gold. When her fellow pirates decide to increase their profits by entering the slave trade, Jacquotte turns away from piracy and the pursuit of riches, opting to plot a war of liberation.
Vanessa Riley brings to life the hidden narratives of black women and women of color in novels like Island Queen and Queen of Exiles. She is the proud recipient of the 2024 Georgia Mystery/Detective Fiction Author of the Year. Her work has been featured in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Publishers Weekly, and The New York Times.
Registration is required for this free program. To register, visit tinyurl.com/RileyOCL, call 732-349-6200, or visit your local OCL branch.
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