Hell and High Water
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Caleb has spent his life roaming southern England with his Pa, little to their names but his father’s signet ring and a puppet theater for popular, raunchy Punch and Judy shows — until the day Pa is convicted of a theft he didn’t commit and sentenced to transportation to the colonies in America. From prison, Caleb’s father sends him to the coast to find an aunt Caleb never knew he had. His aunt welcomes him into her home, but her neighbors see only Caleb’s dark skin. Still, Caleb slowly falls into a strange rhythm in his new life . . . until one morning he finds a body washed up on the shore. The face is unrecognizable after its time at sea, but the signet ring is unmistakable: it can only be Caleb’s father. Mystery piles on mystery as both church and state deny what Caleb knows. From award-winning British author Tanya Landman comes a heart-stopping story of race, class, family, and corruption so deep it can kill.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In an adventure set in 18th-century England, Landman (The Goldsmith's Daughter) introduces a desperate, on-the-run hero who is trying to solve a mystery. Caleb, the dark-skinned son of a white puppeteer, has always acted as his father's assistant when they perform Punch and Judy shows. After his father is wrongfully arrested for theft, Caleb flees to a fishing village to live with an aunt he's never met. Welcomed by her and his cousin but shunned by the other villagers, Caleb gets the shock of his life when his father's corpse washes ashore. Soon after, Caleb's sailor uncle returns from sea acting strangely. Determined to find answers relating to these two events, Caleb embarks on a dangerous mission that leads him straight into a ring of tyranny and deception. Suspenseful from first page to last, the book delves into racism, class structure, and the abuse of power while highlighting one unprivileged adolescent's attempt to beat a corrupt system. Landman brings to life the sights, sounds, and injustices of a bygone era and is just as attentive to Caleb's strong emotions as his life becomes increasingly dangerous. Ages 12 up.
