I was impressed throughout with the author’s skills in recreating the period setting, including the formality of language and etiquette. Her historical note served to place the novel in context as well as providing fascinating details of the Jay Treaty, which was so vital to the plot and what is known of the Tankerville’s 1794-75 voyage. Set during a voyage from Britain to Philadelphia in 1975, we follow Mr Jago on a hunt to find the Treaty between the Brits and Americans that has gone missing aboard their ship. Never knowing who to trust, and always suspecting someone, Jago tries his best to discover which of his fellow shipmates has the most incentive to steal the treaty and, dare we say it, commit murder to get their hands on it! I would recommend this one to fans of historical fiction, history in general, it's not so much thriller and as political intrigue disguising a murder.

July 1794, and the streets of London are filled with rumours of revolution. Political radical Thomas Hardy is to go on trial for treason, the war against the French is not going in Britain's favour, and negotiations with the independent American colonies are on a knife edge. 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...he raised his snout as if suddenly electrified by a new smell, woofed three times, and then set off at a gallop down the hill towards the town. We could not hold him and we let go of the rope slipped around his collar. It waved like a banner for a moment before he sloughed it off. His plump hams twinkled from us down towards the crossroads where the crowd was waiting. He finds himself onboard the Tankerville, a mail ship headed for Philadelphia via Madeira and Barbados. Laurence is travelling under the pretence of being an assistant to Mr Philpott, who is a journalist. 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. Jago, whose mother is French, is also a (sometimes) reluctant informer to the enemy, although he is becoming increasingly conflicted about this. When an explosive letter is leaked to and published by the press, Laurence comes under suspicion. His position becomes increasingly delicate following the mysterious death of a fellow clerk and other individuals involved in political and conspiratory circles. What an historical delight this was! An immersive experience as if you are there in London in 1794. It's all set in the corridors of political power and the Foreign Office. It's a very unstable time and to be honest, if this had been set in 2020,2021 you would have believed the shenanigans that take place. Turns out history really does repeat itself and power, control and money as well as influence never lose their gravitas over time.

Nattrass, who draws well on colourful tales from her late father's maritime career and research in the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, succeeds in sketching memorable characters whose interactions keep the plot moving an good clip like a Post Office ship with the wind in its sails. 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. Liam McIlvanney was born in Scotland and studied at the universities of Glasgow and Oxford. He has written for numerous publications, including the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement and the Guardian. His debut, Burns the Radical, won the Saltire First Book Award, and his most recent book, Where the Dead Men Go, won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. The Quaker won the 2018 McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year. He is Stuart Professor of Scottish Studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He lives in Dunedin with his wife and four sons. perfectly as a standalone novel, so a sequel seemed too much to ask for. But here we are, less than a year later, and aOn the seventh day of a voyage, a cormorant brought death on board and this novel is the report of Laurence Jago, a disgraced former clerk with the Foreign Office.

I read this one not long after reading The Spirit Engineer and, while set in different time periods, there are definite similarities between the two stories in both style and content. This is the secret report of Laurence Jago. Ex-clerk. Unwilling spy. Reluctant sailor. Accidental detective. Everyone wanted her life. Someone wanted her dead. It was Hannah who found April’s body ten years ago. It was Hannah who didn’t question what she saw that day. Did her testimony put an innocent man in prison? She needs to know the truth. Even if it means questioning her own friends. Even if it means putting her own life at risk. Because if the killer wasn’t a stranger, it’s someone she knows. His real mission is to deliver the Jay Treaty, a document of great importance to the peace between the US and Britain. Thomas Hardy is a political radical who is about to be charged with treason. Moreover, negotiations with the American colonies that declared independence have not been going so well while Britain has been getting a beating in its war with France.

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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. If you enjoy historical fiction weaved in with mystery and murder then you should add Blue Water to your tbr. 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. This time, Jago, a disgraced Foreign Office clerk, is working undercover for Lord Grenville, the current Foreign Secretary.

The story follows Laurence Jago, a minor clerk whose life is about to change when he is promoted to work with an American representative. He is pressured into providing information by a rather formidable woman; and one of his colleagues has just committed suicide. Well written and well constructed, Jago is a character that readers will want to follow' - ALIX NATHAN One late autumn morning, Piper’s best friend arrives at Seawings to discover an eerie scene – the kettle is still warm, all the family’s phones are charging on the worktop, the cars are in the garage. But the house is deserted. 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. 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.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… Leonora Natrass’ novel “Scarlet Town” is another novel that continues to follow the life and times of Laurence Jago of the Foreign Office.