Acts of Mutiny

"In 1959, young Ralph travels to Australia on an ocean liner with his mother and her smooth-talking American lover, Mr. Chaunteyman. Setting off from England, the ship Armorica journeys to the Bay of Biscay, through the Mediterranean, on to the Suez Canal, the Indian Ocean, and beyond. As they continue on their trip, Ralph witnesses the beginning of another love affair - this one between two other passengers: Penny, sailing on the Armorica to meet her husband in Adelaide, and Robert, a young man on his way to work at a satellite tracking station.

Along with these voyagers, the ship is carrying a deadly cargo whose lethal potential gradually comes to light as the Armorica sails onward. Lonely, cut off from his mother and the other children on board, Ralph develops a strange affinity with what lies below deck.

Acts of Mutiny is the story of Ralph's own memory and what he comes to suspect is a misremembered past - a voyage with undercurrents of sexual tension and betrayal that offers him a glimpse of something much larger than his boy's eyes could understand. "