The Hunt for the Peggy C

The Hunt for the Peggy C is a World War II-era adult historical fiction best described as "Casablanca" meets "Das Boot."

Rumor has it that Capt. Jake Rogers, a gruff U.S. Naval Academy dropout, fled America because of a murder. Now, in the days before America entered World War II, Jake scrounges for cargo to smuggle on his decrepit merchant ship. In Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, he takes on his most dangerous load yet – a Jewish family he’s never met.

During the nerve-wracking 3,000-mile escape through naval battles, minefields, and horrendous weather, Jake’s ship struggles to outrun a U-boat commanded by Oberleutnant Viktor Brauer, an ardent Nazi who believes he is doing God’s will. The increasingly unhinged commander knows his shaky career is finished unless he rescues his kidnapped boarding party from Jake.

As the chase intensifies, Jake falls in love with the family’s eldest daughter Miriam, a sweet medical student with a militant streak who constantly challenges Jake to change his mercenary ways.

Everything seems hopeless when Jake is badly wounded, and Miriam must prove she’s as tough as her rhetoric to put down a mutiny by some of Jake’s fed-up crew of misfits -- just as the U-boat closes in for the kill.