1787: Captain Edward Brazier is wounded and in desperate need of medical attention, but his allies have no idea where he is—although neither do his enemies. With his beloved Betsey facing confinement in an asylum at the behest of her brother, time is running out for both.
Can Brazier save Betsey, or are his hopes to be dashed by matters about which he could not have known? The revelations will blow apart the den of criminality in which the smuggling town of Deal, and those who live in it, have existed for too long.
David Donachie (1944–2023) was born in Edinburgh. He always had an abiding interest in military history, including ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, the British navy of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the clandestine services during the Second World War. He had more than fifty published novels to his credit, with over a million combined sales. David lived in Deal, the historic English seaport on the border of the English Channel and the North Sea.