Blue Water: the Instant Times Bestseller (Laurence Jago)

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A sparkling evocation of a distant time which is remarkably similar to the current one. I loved it' - TREVOR WOOD Laurence becomes convinced he knows the identity of the person responsible for his friend’s murder and those that follow. But is that person too obvious a candidate or is the author building up to an audacious double bluff? You’ll have to read the book to find out. If I’m honest, one of the characters who plays a significant role in the plot felt a little under-developed; I really couldn’t picture them in my mind’s eye from the description provided. However, I accept this may have been deliberate on the author’s part to maintain an element of mystery about them. My favourite character – apart from Laurence’s dog, Mr Gibbs – was the irrepressible William Philpott, journalist and newspaper editor. He proves a good friend to Laurence and, although I may be mistaken, I wonder if there could be more of their partnership to come?

Amidst the machinations of Georgian politics, a highly sensitive letter has been leaked to the press, that happens to coincide with the suicide of a colleague of Laurence Jago’s, and though suspicion falls on Jago and another man, it’s easier and less messy to place the blame on the one who can no longer speak for himself. Jago believes his colleague was murdered, and he’s determined to discover who the murderer is - but he needs to keep his own secrets from the powers that be! Then the second elector is poisoned and suspicion turns on Laurence’s own cousin. Suddenly Laurence finds himself ensnared in generations of bad blood and petty rivalries, with his cousin’s fate in his hands… The story is based on true events around the French Revolution and the trial of Thomas Hardy for treason, with some of the characters here fictional and others real historical figures. And I couldn’t tell the difference, to be honest, unless I specifically recognised the name (Pitt, for example). Yet again, a narrative that seamlessly blends history with story to great effect. Death arrived with the cormorant. It came aboard on the seventh day of our voyage, and settled itself at the bowsprit, wings akimbo, to dry its feathers in the brisk wind. It was too far from shore – probably blown out to sea by the tremendous gale we had met at the mouth of the English Channel, … The poor bird was exhausted, and not at all inclined to take to the wing again, despite all the efforts of the superstitious crew.” - ‘Blue Water’ by Leonora Nattrass.

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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... Blue Water” by Leonora Natrass is another brilliant work that is set on a ship heading to Philadelphia during some very turbulent times. Jago’s mission is to help the civil servant who has been charged with delivering a treaty to the United States Congress to persuade them against joining with the French to fight Britain. This book is very very detailed, in history and character study and politics. The research this author must have undertaken to produce such an in depth look at the period will have been immense and I applaud her for that.

There's a warmth throughout suggesting a writer at ease and enjoying her craft and such is her success bringing characters to life that it'd be easy to see a film director snapping up the rights for this one. Trapped on the ship with travellers including two penniless French aristocrats, an Irish actress and a dancing bear, he must hunt down both the lost treaty and a murderer before he has a tragic 'accident' himself...When details of Britain’s military plans are leaked to the press, suspicion falls at first on Jago – but then the blame shifts to another clerk, Will Bates, who is found to have hanged himself in his room. Was Will really the traitor or is he being used as a convenient scapegoat? Jago is sure he was innocent and that his death was actually murder rather than suicide so, with the help of his friend, the journalist William Philpott, he sets out to discover the truth. This is the secret report of disgraced former Foreign Office clerk Laurence Jago, written on the mail ship Tankerville en route to Philadelphia. His mission is to aid the civil servant charged with carrying a vital treaty to Congress that will prevent the Americans from joining with the French in their war against Britain. The public are now invited to vote to bring this longlist down to six books. Voting opens April 27 at 10am at www.harrogatetheakstoncrimeaward.com, and closes on May 18, with the shortlist announced and winner voting opening on June 15. The winner will be revealed on the opening night of Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival on July 20.

There are some quirky characters on the ship, including a comtesse and her burly nephew, a prejudiced cotton plantation owner, and even an Irish actress and her dancing bear cub. Jago certainly won’t be bored! His real mission is to deliver the Jay Treaty, a document of great importance to the peace between the US and Britain. Nattrass does a great job of bringing the period to life, including real people like William Pitt and Lord Grenville. I also loved Laurence's neighbour and ally, Mr. Philpott, an investigative journalist who helps pull the various plot threads together (and suffered a mishap at the aforementioned Zoo that apparently was based on true events?!). He was based on William Cobbett, a real MP and journalist, whom Nattrass has studied and written about, showing that she can absolutely make the leap from academic writing to fiction. Students of the period would probably get a lot out of it. 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.

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I was pleased that Leonora Nattrass had opened with a cast of characters and a map of the Tankerville’s circuitous route that included stops in Barbados and New York before reaching Philadelphia. This presented plenty of opportunities for the kind of challenges present in historical ocean voyages, including threats from other ships and the weather. No albatrosses shadowing them though a cormorant plays an interesting role when it settles in the ship’s riggings.

Jago is a dull character, with no agency of his own, and just drifts along with what everyone else says or does. I can kinda understand that being a bland and overlooked character makes him a perfect mole, but it made for such hard reading. The debut novel was described as a political thriller that draws from the real events from 1794 that had all manner of chaos. When the civil servant meets an unfortunate ‘accidental’ end, Laurence becomes the one person standing between Britain and disaster. It is his great chance to redeem himself at Whitehall – except that his predecessor has taken the secret of the treaty’s hiding place to his watery grave. Fiona Cummins is an award-winning former Daily Mirror showbusiness journalist and a graduate of the Faber Academy Writing a Novel course. She lives in Essex with her family. Into The Dark is her fifth novel. On New Year’s Eve, Rhys Lloyd has a house full of guests. He’s celebrating the success of his lakeside holiday homes and has generously invited the village to drink champagne with their wealthy new neighbours. By midnight, Rhys will be floating dead in the freezing waters of the lake. On New Year’s Day, DC Ffion Morgan has a village full of suspects. She grew up in the tiny community, so the murder suspects are her neighbours, friends and family – and Ffion has her own secrets to protect. With a lie uncovered at every turn, soon the question isn’t who wanted Rhys dead . . . but who finally killed him.

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The year is 1794 and there is turmoil in London, with war against the French, uneasy treaty negotiations with the young nation of America, and discontent among the working people at home. Leonora Nattrass plunges Laurence, William and his wife and all the little Philpotts into this clamorous chaos, and I couldn’t help but also feel buffeted by it, this maelstrom caused by the town’s Mayor challenging the status quo, until I, too, was carried upon the high tide of fervour and heightened energy which the crowd exudes and that feels so very dangerous and threatening. Laurence has precious little time to register the people from his past life in London who suddenly appear in front of him before he’s hurried off to the discovery of the body of the first elector. Which is when you know that Laurence’s return home will be anything but relaxing or quiet or provincial but as full of intrigue and suspense as his previous adventures. And this may make me seem really mean but that made my bookish heart sing. Political radical Thomas Hardy is set to go on trial for the most heinous crime of treason, the war against the ever-pushing french is seeing the scales tipped further towards their favour, and negotiations with independent American colonies are hanging by a thread, resulting in rising tensions and fractured groups upon our very lands.