When the ocean buries a secret, it keeps it deep—unless someone is reckless enough to drag it back into the light.
Dr. Clara Holt has dedicated her life to chasing ghosts no sane archaeologist wants to touch—shipwrecks sealed so tight by the Atlantic’s cold teeth that even history forgot they were there. But her obsession has always been one wreck: Orion’s Mercy, a 19th-century merchant ship swallowed whole by a storm that shouldn’t have been strong enough to sink it. Legends claim its captain sealed something terrible in his cabin the night he put a pistol to his own skull.
When sonar footage reveals the Mercy’s broken hull resting off the storm-lashed coast of Nova Scotia, Clara ignores every warning, every funding rejection, and every polite threat to let the dead stay drowned. She assembles a skeleton crew—an ex-inspector with too many regrets, a drone tech who knows how to keep secrets, and a salvage contractor whose loyalty is as murky as the deep they’re diving into.
But the deeper Clara digs into the wreck’s rotting ribs, the clearer it becomes that the Mercy didn’t go down by accident—and its last captain didn’t intend for the truth to ever see daylight. A rusted brass compass hidden inside the dead man’s chest cavity. A journal page sealed in oilskin, half confession, half curse. A single word scratched under layers of corrosion: Forgive.
As sabotage and betrayal coil through the cramped decks of Clara’s salvage vessel, she’s forced to confront the price of the secrets she’s about to unearth. The Mercy’s final cargo is more than smuggled silk and stolen gold. It’s proof of a century-old blackmail scheme that built an empire—and the same powerful hands that buried it once will drown anyone who tries to lift it back up.
Is the truth worth the price when the sea demands payment in iron and salt?
Haunted by the father she couldn’t save and the dead captain who whispers from the deep, Clara must decide whether she’s willing to trade her crew’s lives—and her own sanity—to break the cycle of betrayal that sank the Mercy in the first place. Some wrecks are meant to stay sealed. Some ghosts demand you drag them into daylight, piece by piece, before they drag you under for good.
Taut as a steel cable and as immersive as the black depths it explores, The Pale Shipwreck is a maritime mystery brimming with betrayal, buried history, and the haunting pull of unfinished confessions. Perfect for fans of historical thrillers with a ghostly bite, atmospheric shipwreck lore, and heroines too stubborn to drown.
Dare to dive in. Some secrets don’t stay sunk.
Link to download free book – Always double check the price before you download – sometimes there are price glitches or unexpected price changes.
This book is free from 07/11/2025 until 07/14/2025.
About the Author
Stone Patrick is a pseudonym for Taylor Stonely, who has a day job working for a major financial services company. He received a BS degree from Brigham Young University in 1991 and an MBA degree from the University of Phoenix in 2002. He currently resides in north Texas with his wife, and together they have four children and two grandchildren. He also enjoys spending time outdoors and pursues landscape photography as a hobby. His motto in life is, "Enjoy the journey!"
Is this book no longer free? Let us know in the comments so we can remove it from our site. Have you read this book? Tell us what you thought about it in the comments!