A U.S. Navy intelligence officer, Jess is serving on an aircraft carrier (the first woman ever to do so) until she gets assigned a top-secret mission. When the mission goes wrong, she's rescued by Philippine Navy sailors who've been strategically moored for far too long. Things get complicated when their unhinged leader declares Jess an angel sent to save them from their disastrous mission. But Jess is no angel; she's done horrible things and she's desperate for absolution.

The only person who can give it to her is Zi Shan. Exiled by the Communist Party of China to a coral sprawl called Mischief Reef, he's been tasked with turning the reef into an island by dredging sand from the ocean floor. Each day he follows a series of bizarre directives, desperate to one day be allowed to return to his daughter. But when Jess washes up on his shore, everything turns to chaos.

Inspired by real but re-imagined events in the late 1980s, the mysteries of fate unfold dramatically in Nine Dash Line. What brough Jess and Zi Shan to Mischief Reef? What binds them together? And how in the world will they ever get home? (From Freehand Books)

Emily Saso is a writer from Toronto. Her debut novel, The Weather Inside, was published in 2016. Nine Dash Line is her second novel.