The Body in the Boat
A gripping murder mystery for fans of Antonia Hodgson
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
A gripping tale of murder and mystery in eighteenth century England.
Across the still, dark English Channel come the smugglers. But tonight they carry an unusual cargo: a coffin. Several miles inland, a respected banker holds a birthday party for his wife. Within days, one of the guests is found shot dead.
What links this apparently senseless killing to the smugglers lurking in the mists? Why has the local bank been buying and hoarding gold? And who was in the mysterious coffin?
Reverend Hardcastle and Mrs Chaytor find themselves drawn into the worlds of high finance and organised crime in this dramatic and dark Georgian mystery. With its unique cast of characters and captivating amateur sleuths, The Body in the Boat is a twisting tale that vividly brings to life eighteenth-century Kent and draws readers into its pages.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mackenzie's superior third mystery set in Romney Marsh (after 2018's The Body in the Ice) blends a fair-clued whodunit with an accurate depiction of late-18th-century England. At a dinner party at the home of justice of the peace Frederick Maudsley, the Rev. Marcus Hardcastle meets Maudsley's son-in-law, Hector Munro, who, like the JP, is a partner in a local bank, the East Weald and Ashford. Hardcastle overhears Maudsley and Munro discussing keeping something a secret from "the Grasshopper," but thinks little more of that conversation until Munro turns up dead in a beached boat, shot in the stomach. Hardcastle later discovers that the Grasshopper was a reference to a London bank connected with the East Weald and Ashford and that the dead man was consorting with one of the smuggling rings operating out of the area. The plot thickens when Hardcastle finds indications that Munro's involvement with criminals may have been part of a scheme to shore up the local bank's resources. Fans of Imogen Robertson's historicals will be pleased.
