See More From Book Club Friends

Sign up and log in to post, comment and join the conversation.

Book Club Friends is 100% Canadian 🇨🇦

Ariel Lawhon

The Pirate Queen

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Frozen River and I Was Anastasia, a thrilling historical adventure inspired by the life of Grace O’Malley, an infamous Irish sea captain and folk heroine who risked everything to protect her people against the powerful Elizabethan regime

Grace O’Malley was born to be at sea. Raised alongside her brother by their father, chief of the name of clan O’Malley, Grace learns early that her dreams of the open water are not compatible with the life she’s expected to lead as the daughter of a noble family. And when her father marries her to the wrong man, a neighboring chief named Donhal, Grace’s world shifts for the worse.

Undaunted, Grace raises a family without abandoning her passion, aiding her hot-tempered husband in his campaigns against rival tribes. Eventually ousted from her husband’s land in the wake of his death, Grace returns to her childhood home and begins her career as a pirate in earnest, claiming new territories and finding deeper love, only to see her livelihood threatened by English incursions into Ireland, and her family endangered in an attempt to check her power.

Tenderly observed and fiercely written, Ariel Lawhon’s gripping latest channels the natural beauty of sixteenth-century Ireland alongside the brutality of the period as seen through the eyes of an unforgettable heroine and defender of her people, who truly earned the title “the Pirate Queen of Ireland.”

Author: Ariel Lawhon
Published: 2026-09-08
Page Count: 336

This page may include affiliate links.

Purchase on:

Amazon
Amazon

Book Club Discussion Questions For The Pirate Queen

Discuss The Pirate Queen With Your Book Club Friends

Do you want to take a deeper dive intoThe Pirate Queen? Chat about themes, characters, settings, plots and let’s celebrate this book for our Book of the Month discussion!

Suggest The Pirate Queen

More Book Club Discussions

A Better Man
A Fatal Grace
A Great Reckoning
A Rule Against Murder
A Trick of the Light
A World of Curiosities
All the Devils Are Here
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s
Beautiful Ugly
Bury Your Dead
Glass Houses
How the Light Gets In
How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future
Iron Lake (20th Anniversary Edition)
Kingdom of the Blind
On Tyranny
State of Terror
Still Life
The Beautiful Mystery
The Boyfriend
The Briar Club
The Brutal Telling
The Crash
The Cruelest Month
The Frozen River
The Grey Wolf
The Housemaid
The Life We Bury
The Long Way Home
The Madness of Crowds
The Mighty Red
The Nature of the Beast
The River We Remember
The Rose Code
The Searcher
The Thursday Murder Club
Wild Dark Shore
See All Discussions

Latest Releases From Recommended Authors

1999: An Allie Burns Novel
A Calamity of Souls
A Christmas Witness
A Day of Judgment
A Death in Cornwall
A Grave in the Woods
A Grave Robbery
A Refiner’s Fire
A Slowly Dying Cause
Abduction of a Slave
Against the Grain
All the Colors of the Dark
An Enemy in the Village
An Inside Job
An Island of Suspects: A Brittany Mystery
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s
Angel of Vengeance
Apostle's Cove
At Midnight Comes the Cry
Autocracy
Backstage: Stories of a Writing Life
Badlands: A Nora Kelly Thriller
Battle Mountain
Beautiful Ugly
Bertie's Theory of Ice Cream
Better Safe Than Sorry: A Sgt. Windflower Mystery
Blood and Mascara
Blood Ties
Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts
Breaking the Dark
Broken Fields
Buried Road
By Any Other Name
Careless People
Clete
Close to Death
Clown Town
Coyote Hills: A Novel
Cut and Thirst: A Short Story
Dark Storm Rising: A Kate Burkholder Short Story
Death & Other Inconveniences
Death at the Sanatorium
Death at the Sign of the Rook
Death of a Master Chef: A Brittany Mystery
Death of a Smuggler
Death of a Spy
Death on the Tiber
Death Row
Democracy
Den of Iniquity
Don't Forget Me
Don't Let Him In
Dream Count
Evil Bones
Extinction
Fire and Bones
First Frost: A Longmire Mystery
Friends are Forever
Girls' Night Out: A J. P. Beaumont Short Story
Gone Before Goodbye
Good Dirt
Grave of the Lawgiver
Harbor Lights
Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?
Here One Moment
How to Seal Your Own Fate
I Will Ruin You
Identity Unknown
In Sunshine or in Shadow
In the Time of Five Pumpkins
James
Joe Pickett: A Mysterious Profile
Junia
Killing Time: An Agatha Raisin Mystery
Kills Well with Others
Kiss Her Goodbye
Knave of Diamonds
Lethal Prey
Lightning Strikes the Silence
Locked In
Looking for You
Lost Birds: A Leaphorn
Madame Tessier Knows All
Made for Murders
Marble Hall Murders
Midnight and Blue
Miss Morgan's Book Brigade
Mockingbird Summer
Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure
Murder Takes a Vacation
My Beloved: A Mitford Novel
My Friends
My Husband's Wife: A Novel
Nash Falls
Never Flinch: A Novel
Night in the City
Nightshade
Nightshade Revenge
Nobody's Fool
Normal Rules Don't Apply
Now or Never
One Of Us Is Dead
One Perfect Couple
Open Season
Outlander Cocktails: The Official Drinks Guide Inspired by the Series
OverKill
Paper Boat
Pay Dirt: A V.I. Warshawski Novel
Pitch Dark
Prophet of Blood
Queen Macbeth: Darkland Tales
Rage
Return to Sender: A Longmire Mystery
Seven Corpses All in a Row
Shadow of the Solstice
Sharp Force
Silent as the Grave
Silent Bones
Sisters in the Wind
Skin and Bones: And Other Mike Bowditch Short Stories
Sonnets for a Missing Key
Spirit Crossing
Still Life Deluxe Edition
Still See You Everywhere
Strangers in Time
Sunrise on the Reaping
Table for Two: Fictions
The Black Loch
The Black Wolf
The Boyfriend
The Briar Club
The Burning
The Comfort of Ghosts
The Conditions of Unconditional Love
The Cost of a Hostage
The Crash
The Crossroads
The Dark Wives
The Frozen People: An Ali Dawson Mystery
The Ghost Orchid: An Alex Delaware Novel
The Girl from Devil's Lake
The Good
The Great Deceiver
The Great Hippopotamus Hotel
The Grey Wolf
The Guest
The Hallmarked Man
The Harvey Girl
The Hidden City
The Housemaid Is Watching
The Housemaid's Wedding: A Short Story
The Hunter
The Impossible Fortune
The Intruder
The Killing Stones
The King's Ransom
The Lantern's Dance
The Last Days of Kira Mullen
The Last Word
The Late Lord Thorpe
The Leadership Journey: How Four Kids Became President
The Lost Coast: A Novel
The Lost Language of Oysters
The Maid's Secret
The Man in Black and Other Stories
The Midnight Feast
The Mighty Red
The Mistletoe Mystery: A Maid Novella
The Mother Act
The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2024
The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer
The Proving Ground
The Quiet Librarian
The Red Queen
The Rose Arbor
The Secrets of the Abbey
The Solitary Friend
The Stolen Queen
The Story She Left Behind
The Summer Guests
The Teacher
The Tenant
The Tree Collectors
The Verts: A Story of Introverts and Extroverts
The Waiting
The Widow's Husband's Secret Lie: A Satirical Novella
The Winds From Further West
The Woman in Suite 11
The Women
There Will Be Bodies
They Thought I Was Dead: Sandy's Story
Think Twice
This Is Why We Lied: A Will Trent Thriller
This Wild and Precious Life
Three Days in June
Three-Inch Teeth
To Die For
Too Close for Comfort: The Sgt. Windflower Mystery Series
Tooth and Claw: A Longmire Story
Toxic Prey
Trouble Island
Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)
We Are All Guilty Here
We Solve Murders
We Three Queens
What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust
Whistle: A Novel
Wild Dark Shore
You Like It Darker
You Will Never Be Me