Cuckold Point
London, 1799. Left ashore by the Royal Navy, Tom Pascoe has made a new and successful life for himself in the Thames Marine Police, but he is also a man with tragedy in his past and a drinking problem. To add to his troubles, his much younger brother has come to live with him just as the Wapping office embarks on a difficult new case. Pascoe and his crew have to race against a gang of violent thieves and two American agents for a shipment of silk that, according to the Foreign Office, hides a crucial secret dispatch.
This book, fourth in the Tom Pascoe series, has a great premise set against an unusual – and wonderfully described – riverside London. Unfortunately, the story is not up to the atmospheric setting. More than twisting and turning, it drifts this way and that, as characters (even the much admired and feared hero) keep missing, failing to recognise or downright neglecting obvious clues, and when anyone gets anything right it is by coincidence – again and again until the abrupt and unsatisfying ending. A most frustrating read.
