July 1680: Richard Cameron is dead, and John Steel and Lucas Brotherstone have only just escaped capture by government forces.
The net widens to arrest anyone suspected of Covenanter sympathies, and the army becomes ever more brutal in its suppression of the rebels.
To have any hope of survival Lucas Brotherstone must escape to Holland, and John Steel is determined to make this happen.
Desperate Times is the third historical novel in Ethyl Smith's series, following Changed Times and Dark Times , about the lives of ordinary people in extraordinary times.