The Blackstone Key

In 1795 Britain is at war with France but the east coast smugglers still ply their trade across the Channel. There is a ready market for Brandy, silk and other luxury items that they bring in but are they also providing a courier service for French spies? This is the plot of Rose Melikan's excellent first novel The Blackstone Key. Mary Finch received an invitation to visit an uncle she has never seen because of a familly feud started before she was born. On the road from Cambridge to Suffolk she comes on a man dying at the side of the road as a result of an accident. Whilst trying to render assistance she discovers that he is carrying a watch that is the twin of that which she inherited from her father and is engraved with her uncle's initials. She meets an Artilliary Officer, Captain Holland, who offers to escort her to her uncle's house which they find deserted and where they are set upon by smugglers. Mary and Captain Holland make their escape and are taken in by Mrs Tipton owner of a nearby house. The next day she sends for Mr Sommerville, the local magistrate, who arrives accompanied by Mr Deprez a mysterious character with more than a touch of Jane Austen's Mr Darcy about him. The smugglers are couriers for French spies who have penetrated the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich and are transmitting information back to Paris. Coded documents are discovered at her uncle's home, could he have been part of the plot? Captain Holland is stationed at Woolwich, Mr Deprez has contacts at the Admiralty and Bow Street but one of them is not all he seems. Rose Melikan drives the narrative along like a Revenue Cutter in full sail and negotiates the twists and turns of the plot with consumate ease. This is her first novel but I hope that it is the first of many.