Search - Watery Grave (Sir John Fielding, Bk 3)

The third novel in the Sir John Fielding mysteries (Blind Justice and Murder in Grub Street are the first two). A great Georgian thriller--definitely a step aside from the hero detective who always has luck on his side. One of the best yet in the series.

Third in the Sir John Fielding, Bow Street Magistrate, series, set in 1769 London. Lady Fielding’s son returns from a 3-year sea voyage on the HMS Adventure. At the same time, Sir John is asked by an admiral and old friend to assist him in the court-martial trial of an officer on the Adventure who is accused of pushing the Captain overboard during a bad storm. Story told from the perspective of Jeremy, a 14-year-old who has been ‘adopted’ by Sir John and works as his assistant and messenger. I’m enjoying this series and this book was an excellent entry in it.

Sir John Fielding and Jeremy his young assistant get involved with a case invovling not Sir John's regular arena of British law but The laws governing the actions of officers and other members of the Royal Navy. I really like this series of books, the characters are well drawn and with each addition book in the series, Alexander, fleshs out all of his characters. The books are peopled with several minor reaccurring characters and The plots are well paced and complicated enough without being so twisted you are forced to go back and reread parts. Also the solutions are not "out of the blue" so to speak. The clues are there it's just whether you or Sir John can figure it out first.