Watery Grave — Bruce Alexander

"The year is 1769, and Jeremy Proctor, a manly, orphaned lad of fourteen, has been in the employ of Sir John Fielding for more than a year, lending his clear, observant eyes to the blind magistrate of the Bow Street Court in return for a thrilling education in the wicked ways of Georgian London. The case before Sir John in Bruce Alexander's third enthralling period piece, Watery Grave, entails rum doings on one of His Majesty's mighty frigates, which limps into the Tower Wharf with a senior officer awaiting court-martial in the brig, charged with shoving the captain overboard during a storm ... it's a joy to watch the great magistrate apply his formidable intellect." -- The New York Times Book Review