The Blighted Cliffs : Book One of the Reluctant Adventures of Lieutenant Martin Jerrold (Reluctant Adventures of Lieutenant Martin Jerrold)

Rating:
Summary: There Was Hornblower, Aubrey/Maturin, Now Jerrold
Review: There was Hornblower, then Aubrey/Maturin, now comes Lt. Martin Jerrold, not cut from the same cloth at all. It starts out with him waking up from a hangover, a state in which he had gotten through the Battle of Trafalgar.

This though is a murder mystery set in the same time frame. Lt. Jerrold is quickly suspected of murdering a British sailor. His new commanding officer, and the magistrate would see him hanged. They probably would if they could identify the corpse. His long suffering Uncle at the Admiralty gives him two weeks to solve the murder.

Written in the same style as the other books, this one is even better at painting a picture of the life of the time. Life at Dover, a center of smuggling is presented as dramatically different than life at sea as in the other books. The people are more varied, the situations more surprising.

This is supposed to be the first of a trilogy. Now the problem is waiting for the second volume. I also wonder if Edwin Thomas realizes just what he has created here. He may well be writing of the hapless Lt. Jerrold for a lifetime.