A Certain Threat (The Merriman Chronicles Book 1)
“With Revolutionary agents travelling between Ireland and England and war with France inevitable, the English government is anxious to uncover any plots between Irish rebels and the French.” Add in smugglers, a traitor, a secondary plot to steal graphite from the Cumberland mines – and a pretty doctor’s daughter – plunge dashing young nautical hero, Lieutenant, James Merriman, into the world of espionage and a plot to kidnap the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and you have the ideal making of a splendid Sea Saga.
The first book in the series opens in 1792 with a bumpy and uncomfortable coach journey (which reminded me of the start of the Poldark books). Merriman is on his way to Cheshire. His ship had been wrecked and he is worrying about his career. England is at peace and prospects of a commission are rare. When the principal Treasury agent is wounded, it falls to our Lieutenant to enter the world of espionage and subversive Irish plots – the French are keen to assist the Irish against the English, not just as a diversionary tactic, but to use Irish ports to attack England.
This Irish twist makes a change from the usual Napoleonic naval adventures. The secondary characters are as interesting as Merriman himself, and the plot well-developed with detailed touches of English life towards the end of the eighteenth century. Some of the sailing detail is not accurate, and the dialogue ponderous in places. There were a few typos, some awkward phrases, and technical issues such as run-on sentences and punctuation errors, but not enough to spoil the narrative.
The layout shouts self-publish: chapter headings – not numbering, foreword and prologue on a left-hand page (the prologue could easily have been incorporated as back-story). All this aside, if the formatting and errors could be sorted out this could become a promising series of nautical adventures.
