Blue Water: the Instant Times Bestseller (Laurence Jago)

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The many twists and turns kept me guessing and the fabulous descriptions made me feel like I was actually there on the ship alongside the characters.

This is Book 2 in her series of political thrillers set in the late eighteenth century featuring reluctant spy Laurence Jago.Of the other passengers, each has their own secrets to protect, and working out whose are linked to Laurence’s own mission makes for an intriguing and surprising plot. Leonora Nattrass lectured on the literature and politics of the 18th century for almost ten years before running away to Cornwall, where she now lives in a seventeenth-century house with seventeenth-century draughts and knits the wool of her small flock of Ryeland sheep into complicated jumpers. The superstitions of the crew add yet another layer to this tale of intrigue, murderous intent and the race to locate the prize, or treaty. This historical detail was great and I really felt like I was on board the Tankerville thanks to Nattrass' descriptive writing.

Kaur’s first case is that of Tory MP and vocal climate-change denier Garfield Rice, found dead at his school reunion. This is a good historical thriller which gains momentum and more excitement as the ship's voyage progresses. Not to mention the cormorant which began the voyage on the ship, much to the horror of the crew as it is a bad omen. 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 December 1794 and former government clerk Laurence Jago has just left Britain aboard the packet ship Tankerville. Jago is assisting a civil servant to safely carry an important Treaty to Congress that will prevent the Americans from joining with the French to wage war against Britain. This sequel to 2021's Black Drop, charting the adventures of reluctant spy Laurence Jago at sea, introduces a colourful cast of characters, a real sense of place and some delightful one-liners.

I relished seeing how each new passenger affects the onboard dynamic, and how living at such close quarters adds an extra frisson of tension to this. Monstrous, other-worldly, in the empty expanse of ocean, she loomed over us with her two decks, her extravagant gilding, and rank upon rank of open gun ports.

His real mission is to deliver the Jay Treaty, a document of great importance to the peace between the US and Britain.

War Office official Mr Jenkinson, also on board the Tankerville, has offered to hide the Treaty in a safe place, but when he is found dead and the papers disappear Jago realises it’s up to him to find them and prevent them from falling into French hands.The story unfolds tantalisingly slowly, sneakily teasing the reader into thinking one thing, then the opposite, until our powers of deduction are as tossed about and confused as any seafaring passenger. Who has killed Jenkinson, a man who had taken it upon himself to guard the treaty – telling nobody, not even his confidante Jago, where he had secreted it. I found this to be one of those books you keep expecting to find it's feet and give an inspirational twist or novel approach but just never does. As the story progresses, Jago finds that his fellow passengers all have their own motives to find the treaty for themselves.