Cinnamon and Gunpowder

A Novel

By: Eli Brown

Narrated by: James Langton

Eli Brown's Cinnamon and Gunpowder is a gripping adventure, a seaborne romance, and a twist on the tale of Scheherazade—with the best food ever served aboard a pirate's ship.

The year is 1819, and the renowned chef Owen Wedgwood has been kidnapped by the ruthless pirate Mad Hannah Mabbot. He will be spared, she tells him, as long as he puts exquisite food in front of her every Sunday without fail.

To appease the red-haired captain, Wedgwood gets cracking with the meager supplies on board. His first triumph at sea is actual bread, made from a sourdough starter that he leavens in a tin under his shirt throughout a roaring battle, as men are cutlassed all around him. Soon he's making tea-smoked eel and brewing pineapple-banana cider.

But Mabbot—who exerts a curious draw on the chef—is under siege. Hunted by a deadly privateer and plagued by a saboteur hidden on her ship, she pushes her crew past exhaustion in her search for the notorious Brass Fox. As Wedgwood begins to sense a method to Mabbot's madness, he must rely on the bizarre crewmembers he once feared: Mr. Apples, the fearsome giant who loves to knit; Feng and Bai, martial arts masters sworn to defend their captain; and Joshua, the deaf cabin boy who becomes the son Wedgwood never had.

Cinnamon and Gunpowder is a swashbuckling epicure's adventure simmered over a surprisingly touching love story—with a dash of the strangest, most delightful cookbook never written. Eli Brown has crafted a uniquely entertaining novel full of adventure: the Scheherazade story turned on its head, at sea, with food.

An NPR Best Book of the Year (2013)

©2013 Eli Brown (P)2013 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Food porn and rip-roaring pirate adventure are two great tastes that taste great together in Eli Brown's rollicking Cinnamon and Gunpowder.” —Petra Mayer, NPR.org

“[An] early 19th-century tale of culinary seduction and swashbuckling antics, featuring characters who evoke the desperate ingenuity of Scheherazade and the hell-bent ruthlessness of Ahab . . . Brown explores the mysteries of flavor with prose that any word-savoring foodie will delight in . . . The story, the characters, and the ingenious battle scenes are far too colorful for moral dilemmas, which are made irrelevant when Mabbot is revealed as something of a humanitarian out to reset the wrongs of British imperialism.” —Publishers Weekly

“Brown concocts a clever tale in which history, ethics, action, and romance blend harmoniously. Tantalizing descriptions of the smells and flavors of the dishes Wedgwood creates may send readers running to their spice cabinets in search of the blends he exalts in, even as they are entranced by Brown's delectable tale.” —Amber Peckham, Booklist

A Wonderful Adventure

Charming, funny, and thrilling, but deeply honest and sad at times as well. A wonderful read for a rainy day, and definitely something I will come back to.

Not bad-Not terrrific

Nice story, new ideas, kept me interested but not invested in the characters. The cooking aspect was a new twist and I liked that, the rest was fairly average.

Witty, sweet and hilarious adventure.

Loved every bit of this book. From the bang of a start to the meal descriptions, unfolding action, loss, love, and redemption.
I am left forever mourning the memory of the characters in this book.

Cinnamon and gunpowder

Silly story but good fantasy for a change of pace instead of dysfunctional families and war stories.

Interesting premise

Horrible character development. Didn’t like any of them. Great story concept but not carried out well.