Shores of Darkness Author:Diana Norman For Martin Millet of the Dragoons it began on the turbulent summer day in 1706 when he returned form the French wars to find his Aunt Effie murdered and himself sole inheritor of her lodging house and her serving girl, Bratchet, neither of which he wanted. — For Daniel Defoe, political hack, failed merchant and debtor, it had begun a little earli... more »er, on the equally inauspicious day when they put him in the pillory for seditious libel and he was accosted by an enormous orange-haired Highlander.
The Scotsman is seeking a young kinswoman, Anne Bard, and offers Defoe money to help him find her. Then, surprisingly, a Minister of State does the same, for Anne Bard may be able the answer the question that is tearing the country apart. The ageing Queen Anne is childless, leaving the future king to be chosen between a Protestant Hanoverian and a Catholic Jacobite, neither of whom is popular. What, however, if there were a third choice: another true Stuart, but a Protestant?
Defoe, the threat of Newgate hanging over him, can hardly refuse. And since Anne Bard's last known address was Aunt Effie's lodging house, Defoe employs two even more unlikely spies to help him: Millet and his troublesome legacy, the Bratchet.
Followed by the mysterious Highlander, their search takes them to Flanders where the Duke of Marlborough is fighting the French, to the court of the Sun King Louis XIV himself, into piracy and finally, unwillingly, into the world of the darkest trade of all.
Yet all the time, had they but known it, the answer lies at home, dangerously close to Queen Anne herself...
Told with Diana Norman's wicked wit and energy, Shores of Darkness combines public comedy and private tragedy to paint an irresistible portrait of the last days of the Stuart dynasty.
Diana Norman also wrote under the pseudonym of Ariana Franklin.« less