** A WATERSTONES THRILLER OF THE MONTH **
** AN INSTANT TIMES BESTSELLER **
** A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR **
** SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA HISTORICAL DAGGER AWARD **
** LONGLISTED FOR THE THEAKSTON OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR **
‘A TRULY GRIPPING READ’ – GUARDIAN
‘FABULOUS, A DELIGHT’ – S.G. MACLEAN
‘A FINE ADVENTURE REMINISCENT OF PATRICK O’BRIAN’ – SUNDAY TIMES
This is the secret report of Laurence Jago. Unwilling spy. Reluctant sailor. Accidental detective.
New Year 1795, and Laurence Jago is aboard the Tankerville mail ship, en route to Philadelphia. Laurence is travelling undercover, supposedly as a journalist’s assistant. But his real mission is to protect a civil servant, en route to Congress with a vital treaty that will stop the Americans from joining the French in their war against Britain.
When the civil servant meets an unfortunate – and apparently accidental – end, the treaty disappears, and Laurence realises that only he can keep the Americans out of the war. Trapped on the ship with a strange assortment of travellers including two penniless French aristocrats, an Irish actress and a dancing bear, Laurence must hunt down both the lost treaty and the murderer, before he has a tragic ‘accident’ himself…
The new page-turning historical mystery from the author of BLACK DROP, a 2021 TIMES Book of the Year. Perfect for readers of Andrew Taylor, Laura Shepherd-Robinson and S.J. Parris.
About the author
Leonora Nattrass studied eighteenth-century literature and politics, and spent ten years lecturing in English and publishing works on William Cobbett. She lives in Cornwall, in a seventeenth-century house with seventeenth-century draughts, and spins the fleeces of her Ryeland sheep into yarn. Her first novel, Black Drop, was published in 2021, and was a Times Book of the Year. Her second, Blue Water, was published in 2022 and was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month and shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger Award. Her third novel, Scarlet Town, was also shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger Award. Her fourth novel, standalone historical mystery The Bells of Westminster, will be published by Viper in 2024.
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