Edwin Thomas
First British Edition Bantam (2004) |
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The Chains of Albion
Book Two of The Reluctant Adventures of Lieutenant Martin Jerrold
July 1806. Commanding a prison hulk filled with French captives in the Medway, Martin Jerrold thinks his war can’t get much better. He’s far away from storm, battle and the other disagreeable elements of naval life. He can keep his mistress, Isobel, close at hand. It seems too good to last, and so it proves.
When one of the prisoners goes missing, Jerrold’s comfortable world is turned upside down. Summoned to London by the First Lord of the Admiralty, he is ordered to recapture the Frenchman at any cost. Jerrold does not know it, but his pursuit will take him clear across England: from the stinking marshes of Chatham to the slums of London; from the wilds of Dartmoor to the newly fashionable seaside resort of Brighton.
But why is the prisoner so important? At the Post Office, Jerrold’s old friend Mr Nevell is curious; so too are politicians from the highest levels of the Whig government, and the Tory opposition led by the cunning Spencer Perceval. Even the seductive Princess Caroline takes an unexpected interest.
As Jerrold - with his usual mix of bad timing, bad luck and bad behaviour - closes on his quarry, he begins to uncover an extraordinary tangle of deceit and treachery which stretches back over twenty years to the most exalted levels of society on both sides of the Channel, and which some men will stop at nothing to protect.
`Will fill the gaping hole stoved in the timbers of the sea-saga genre by the sad death of Patrick O’Brian ... Jerrold swashes his buckles and splices his mainbraces to good effect.’. Scotland on Sunday
`At last, the nautical Flashman! Martin Jerrold looks set to become one of the great British anti-heroes, boozing and lusting his way through Regency England.’ Andrew Roberts
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Paperback - Bantam (2004) |
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The Blighted Cliffs
Book One of The Reluctant Adventures of Lieutenant Martin Jerrold
Not many men emerged from Trafalgar without an ounce of credit, but Lieutenant Martin Jerrold R.N. managed it. In February 1806, he is given one last 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, he stumbles across a corpse lying on the beach. And they take a distinct turn for the worse when he is suspected - of murder. With the local magistrate determined to see him hang, Jerrold knows clearing his name will require an improbable reversal of his miserable fortunes. Somewhere in Dover’s twisted streets, someone must know something. But he soon discovers that nothing is as it seems in a town where smuggling is a way of life...
Distrusted by his superiors, set upon by suspiciously well-informed thugs, attacked by the French at sea but finding some sympathy in the less-than-respectable arms of Isobel, Martin Jerrold has two weeks to save his skin - or perish in the attempt.
The Blighted Cliffs marks the beginning of a rich, swashbuckling adventure series, featuring a reluctant hero for whom life rarely turns out as he intends.
About The Author
Edwin Thomas was born in 1977 and grew up in West Germany, Belgium and America before returning to England to study history at Lincoln College, Oxford. He now lives in London with his wife. The first instalment of the adventures of Martin Jerrold, The Blighted Cliffs, was runner-up for the CWA Debut Dagger award.
Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.
The Chains of Albion
(Bantam,
2004)
Jun 04
The Blighted Cliffs
Bantam Pbk Jun 04
The Chains of Albion
by Edwin Thomas
