Riding

Name: Riding
Rating: 4.4 (284 reviews)

by Malcolm Archibald Book 2 in the The Rise of an English Lawbreaker series.

First published 2022

Amazon

4.3(284)

John Smith has turned from smuggling at sea to highway robbery, using the identity of the Yellowhammer to protect the inland routes that support his illicit trade. His success brings him money and enemies. Bess is placed at risk when Lady Charlotte discovers who she is, while Lord Fitzwarren hires a professional killer to hunt Smith down and dismantle the network on which he depends.

The pursuit forces Smith to move constantly between criminal alliances and the respectable world whose wealth he targets. Friends may be hiding their own motives, and every attempt to protect Bess increases the chance that the authorities will connect the highwayman to the smuggler. Set in eighteenth-century England, the novel treats coastal smuggling and road crime as connected businesses shaped by customs duties, patronage and violence rather than as isolated romantic adventures.