The Barrister and the Letter of Marque
Protagonist Mr. William Snopes is a London barrister with a heightened social conscience. The well-born Madeleine Jameson, of Heathcote Estate in Essex, is not his typical client. But, the needy and intriguing heiress presents a case our barrister cannot resist. Lady Jameson’s cousin, Harold Tuttle, captain of the merchant brig Padget—in which Lady Jameson has invested—has been charged with piracy. She claims the captain sailed under a Letter of Marque, granted by the king’s regent, allowing Tuttle to seize cargo from French ships illegally plying the Indian Sea. But, on returning to London, captain and crew are arrested and the Padget’s valuable cargo of tea is seized. Worse yet, Tuttle’s Letter of Marque is nowhere to be found! And, where is First Mate Ivars, who might vouch for Tuttle? Can Snopes crack the case and save an innocent man from transportation to Tasmania, or worse? Others involved in this tangled narrative include Barrister Snopes’s junior legal colleagues, boyhood friends Edmund Shaw and Obadiah Cummings; Snopes’s nemesis, Solicitor Mandy Bristol; American smugglers; orphan pickpockets; and silent investors in “very, very high places.”
In this novel—his fourth—Todd M. Johnson draws on his background as a trial lawyer to introduce us to the legal world of Regency Britain. We learn about the lives of barristers and solicitors, the ins-and-outs of Letters of Marque, and the office of the Lord Privy Seal. Nineteenth-century London and environs come to life—from gambling halls, wharfside pubs, and the dank, gruesome interior of Newgate Prison, to the printed pages of “penny dreadfuls” and the high drama of courtroom action within the Old Bailey. An historical mystery with smart writing, developed characters, and unexpected plot twists makes for an entertaining read.
