The debut novel was described as a political thriller that draws from the real events from 1794 that had all manner of chaos. This is the secret report of Laurence Jago. Ex-clerk. Unwilling spy. Reluctant sailor. Accidental detective.

I found the reading induced acid-anxiety, as poor Jago does his best to do the right thing at every turn, but inevitably gets it wrong and sabotages himself. I felt so much pity for his inept flailing towards justice and happiness! Everyone wanted her life. Someone wanted her dead. It was Hannah who found April’s body ten years ago. It was Hannah who didn’t question what she saw that day. Did her testimony put an innocent man in prison? She needs to know the truth. Even if it means questioning her own friends. Even if it means putting her own life at risk. Because if the killer wasn’t a stranger, it’s someone she knows. Jago is a dull character, with no agency of his own, and just drifts along with what everyone else says or does. I can kinda understand that being a bland and overlooked character makes him a perfect mole, but it made for such hard reading.It’s the year 1794, and right from the start we know that Laurence Jago (clerk to the Foreign Office) has secrets - the kind of secrets that, (should he be found out), would result in his head being placed on a spike at Temple Bar, for all to see, that being the punishment for treason! According to the publisher, Leonora Natrass is an author that pens novels that are both compelling whodunnits and also rich historical fiction at the same time. Death arrived with the cormorant. It came aboard on the seventh day of our voyage, and settled itself at the bowsprit, wings akimbo, to dry its feathers in the brisk wind. It was too far from shore – probably blown out to sea by the tremendous gale we had met at the mouth of the English Channel, … The poor bird was exhausted, and not at all inclined to take to the wing again, despite all the efforts of the superstitious crew.” - ‘Blue Water’ by Leonora Nattrass.

The story is based on true events around the French Revolution and the trial of Thomas Hardy for treason, with some of the characters here fictional and others real historical figures. And I couldn’t tell the difference, to be honest, unless I specifically recognised the name (Pitt, for example). Yet again, a narrative that seamlessly blends history with story to great effect. Disgraced former Foreign Office clerk Laurence Jago and his larger-than-life employer the journalist William Philpott return to Laurence’s home town of Helston, Cornwall, in the middle of a tumultuous election that has the inhabitants of the town at one another’s throats.A plethora of established voices join the Theakston ranks for the first time this year. The tantalisingly tense Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister and Lisa Jewell’s chilling new domestic noir The Family Remains are longlisted along with Victoria Selman’s nerve-jangling Truly Darkly Deeply, the deftly suspenseful The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett, while chilling police procedural May God Forgive gives star of ‘Tartan Noir’ Alan Parks his first longlisting. Well written and well constructed, Jago is a character that readers will want to follow' - ALIX NATHAN The setting aboard ship makes this a more contained mystery than the first novel, with a more limited field of potential friends and enemies for Laurence, which I thought worked very well. Jago, whose mother is French, is also a (sometimes) reluctant informer to the enemy, although he is becoming increasingly conflicted about this. When an explosive letter is leaked to and published by the press, Laurence comes under suspicion. His position becomes increasingly delicate following the mysterious death of a fellow clerk and other individuals involved in political and conspiratory circles. What an historical delight this was! An immersive experience as if you are there in London in 1794. It's all set in the corridors of political power and the Foreign Office. It's a very unstable time and to be honest, if this had been set in 2020,2021 you would have believed the shenanigans that take place. Turns out history really does repeat itself and power, control and money as well as influence never lose their gravitas over time.

New Year 1795, and Laurence Jago is aboard the Tankerville mail ship, en route to Philadelphia. Laurence is travelling undercover, supposedly as a journalist’s assistant. But his real mission is to protect a civil servant, en route to Congress with a vital treaty that will stop the Americans from joining the French in their war against Britain. When the civil servant meets an unfortunate – and apparently accidental – end, the treaty disappears, and Laurence realises that only he can keep the Americans out of the war. Trapped on the ship with a strange assortment of travellers including two penniless French aristocrats, an Irish actress and a dancing bear, Laurence must hunt down both the lost treaty and the murderer, before he has a tragic ‘accident’ himself…

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I would recommend this one to fans of historical fiction, history in general, it's not so much thriller and as political intrigue disguising a murder.

Jago’s mission is to help the civil servant who has been charged with delivering a treaty to the United States Congress to persuade them against joining with the French to fight Britain. Chief Executive of Harrogate International Festivals, Sharon Canavar, commented: “We are delighted to announce the 2023 longlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, with an exceptional collection of the UK and Ireland’s best crime fiction novels from the past year. The Award is an integral part of the Festival and with a gripping mix of subgenres nominated, from psychological thrillers to murder mysteries, we can’t wait to see how the public vote this year.” There is a mix of fictional and historical characters. Lord Grenville is the foreign secretary. Others include George Canning, Thomas Hardy (not the novelist, but the radical shoemaker tried for treason), John Jay (an American envoy) and, of course, Pitt the Younger. When the civil servant meets an unfortunate 'accidental' end, Laurence becomes the one person standing between Britain and disaster. It is his great chance to redeem himself at Whitehall - except that his predecessor has taken the secret of the treaty's hiding place to his watery grave. Once I had got the hang of the words and knew my way around the vast array of characters, I enjoyed the story so much more. The descriptions of how the poor live very dirty, unfair lives, compared to the rich minority living in their mansions and country estates, was so interesting.The place: Seawings, a beautiful Art Deco home overlooking the sweep of the bay in Midtown-on-Sea. The crime: The gilded Holden family – Piper and Gray and their two teenage children, Riva and Artie – has vanished from the house without a trace. The detective: DS Saul Anguish, brilliant but with a dark past, treads the narrow line between light and shade. The year is 1794 and there is turmoil in London, with war against the French, uneasy treaty negotiations with the young nation of America, and discontent among the working people at home.