Dancing

by Malcolm Archibald Book 1 in the The Rise of an English Lawbreaker series.

First published 2022

Amazon

4.2(319)

Kent, England, 1762. Bloody smuggling wars are raging on England's southern coast. It's a time of daring men and bold women, and deadly skirmishes between rival gangs and the law. John Smith, a man both hanged and drowned, returns to his home village, swearing vengeance on the landowner who killed his father.

With guile and violence, he is determined to make his mark. What he doesn't know is that the Preventative Service has sent Ambrose Grant - their most effective man - to hunt him down. Soon, the two cross paths with life-changing consequences. The principal historical frame is Smuggling on the Georgian Coast. The story treats smuggling as an organised coastal economy sustained by customs duties, local poverty, patronage and violence rather than as picturesque lawbreaking.