Blue Water: the Instant Times Bestseller (Laurence Jago)

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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. The strength of the complex plot is a murder mystery set against a backdrop of political upheaval which keeps the reader guessing throughout and outweighs a lack of depth in the development of the characters, all of whom are under enormous stress.

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. Tim Sullivan’s The Teacher is the newest in his entertaining series of police procedurals whose titles come from the murder victim’s profession and we’ve previously reviewed The Monk. It’s great to have these familiar faces reunite with Laurence Jago, while also getting to know them better. A quite decent follow-up to Black Drop, although Laurence Jago seems to have learned nothing from his experiences and is as much a dolt as he was, especially in his dealings with Lizzy McKendrick, as if anyone with half a brain wouldn't have seen through that little minx.

From the no-nonsense Captain Morris – who describes windbag Gunner Smith as "the man talks bollocks from dawn to dusk" – to the seductive Lizzie McKendrick and the moody, mysterious Maximilien de Salles, the devises a page-turning historical whodunnit with aplomb. I hadn’t read Black Drop, the book introducing Laurence Jago, but I didn’t feel I had missed out on any back story.

With President Eisenhower due to pay his first state visit, Rose, who had a hand in the assassination of “the Leader” a couple of years earlier and is surprised to be still at liberty, is tasked with meeting Queen Wallis for a background briefing. Although given what I said before, the main character seems a bit too foolish to play the part of clever youngster. My Lord, affairs aboard this ship have gone worse than I could ever have imagined when I accepted your commission. It’s December 1794 and former government clerk Laurence Jago has just left Britain aboard the packet ship Tankerville.This is the sequel to Black Drop, Leonora Nattrass’ 2021 debut novel which introduced us to the character of Laurence Jago. The writing was superb and the period setting well rendered, but the plot development suffered from the limited scope offered by the book's setting. The narrative is shared between Laurence Jago’s reports and those of the ship’s captain, which are short, to the point but strangely revealing. Everything you want in a page-turner is here: all the best aspects of a thriller, with twists and turns you're not expecting, plus a healthy dose of sentimentality and the opportunity for a good weep.

Disgraced civil servant Laurence Jago is now travelling across the Atlantic with a hidden mission, to protect the important Treaty being carried to the Americas. The civil servant meets an unfortunate ending…and Jago has an opportunity to redeem himself to prevent a war against Britain. Set in a Kentish suburb where malevolent forces lurk, Silverweed Road is a collection of short stories linked by a postcode. For those that haven’t read “Black Drop” there’s a helpful cast of characters (which is always a help regardless) but this can easily be read as a stand-alone with the crux of the story being about an important document and it’s essential need to reach America.Frederick Jenkinson, a War Office official and the only person onboard who knows Jago’s true purpose, ends up dead. Instead we plod through the story with the full witted protagonist consistently coming to the wrong conclusions, with predictable red herrings and flat intrigue. It’s available from 20th October as an audiobook, ebook and in hardback with the paperback due out next year.

The new pageturning historical mystery from the author of BLACK DROP, a 2021 TIMES Book of the Year. Jago joins the ship 'Tankerville' to make the long sea crossing but when his colleague dies in dubious circumstances and another death follows he has an abundance of suspects and questions for himself. It’s an enjoyable historical account and good reading material while I was travelling on the US east coast, learning about the young republic and its founding fathers. After the dramatic events of “Black Drop”, ill-fated Laurence Jago is once again at the centre of political intrigue in “Blue Water”.

Nattrass evokes a strong maritime atmosphere as well as imbuing her plot with the political wrangling of the period. Her first novel, Black Drop, was a Times Book of the Year and her second, Blue Water, was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month and longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award and the CWA Historical Dagger. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH).