Contraband Shore

The Contraband Shore trilogy follows former naval officer Edward Brazier into the Georgian port of Deal, where respectable trade, organised smuggling and local power are inseparable. His attempt to marry Betsey Langridge draws him into a struggle against her controlling family and the criminal interests that dominate the coast.

Across the three novels, Brazier moves from outsider to investigator and fugitive. The sequence combines maritime adventure, romance and crime with the social world of an eighteenth-century port, where customs officers, merchants, sailors and smugglers all depend upon shifting loyalties.