The Blighted Cliffs
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
Not many men emerged from Trafalgar without an ounce of credit to their names, but courtesy of an over-fondness for rum and his habitual bad luck, Lieutenant Martin Jerrold managed it. In February 1806, he is given one final chance to redeem his reputation and dispatched to Dover.
Things don't augur well when, walking off the effects of a night in the tavern, Jerrold stumbles across a corpse lying on the beach. And they take a distinct turn for the worst when, to his horror and bemusement, he is suspected of murder. With a captain who despises him, and the local magistrate determined to see him hang, he knows clearing his name will require an imporbable reversal of his miserable fortunes. Somewhere in Dover's twisted streets, someone must know something. But Jerrold soon discovers that nothing is as it seems in a town where smuggling is a way of life, where everyone from the fishermen to the colonel of dragoons drinks only the finest French brandy...
Distrusted by his superiors, set upon by suspiciously well-informed thugs and attacked by the French at sea, Jerrold does find some sympathy in the less-than-respectable arms of the comely Isobel, but he knows he has but two weeks to save his skin - or perish in the attempt.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Recounting the misadventures of a hapless, besotted lubber in Dover, England, during the winter of 1806, this well-researched, charmingly outrageous debut is the first volume of a projected seagoing trilogy by an Oxford history scholar. Following his humiliation at missing the battle of Trafalgar trapped below deck while sleeping off a hangover, boozy, carousing Lt. Martin Jerrold is banished to Dover by his embarrassed uncle at the Admiralty to serve aboard the cutter Orestes, chasing smugglers of French contraband. Even before he can report for duty, he witnesses a fight on the beach and comes under suspicion for the murder of an unidentified man. When word reaches his uncle at the Admiralty, Jerrold is given a fortnight to clear his name, lest he be exiled to a station in the Indies to rot in ignominy. Sometimes accompanied by the ship's quartermaster, Ducker, and befriended by a sprightly girl called Isobel, Jerrold sets about the almost impossible task of solving the murder and clearing his name. His quest leads across the heights of the storied cliffs, where he meets Lady Cunningham, the wily wife of the judge hoping to hang him. Back on the foggy Dover waterfront, an ill-assorted crew of suspects await, including swashbuckling Captain Davenant, evil banker Mazard and mysterious postman Nevell. Enchanted readers loath to say bon voyage will impatiently await the sequel.
