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Doctor Syn

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This is chronologically the seventh and last book in the sequence of Russell Thorndike's seven highly entertaining novels about the Reverend Doctor Syn, the apparently harmless vicar of Dymchurch in Kent who led a secret life as a pirate and smuggler.

The full series is:

1) Doctor Syn on the High Seas
2) Doctor Syn Returns
3) The Further adventures of Doctor Syn
4) The Courageous Exploits of Doctor Syn
5) The Amazing Quest of Doctor Syn
6) The Shadow of Doctor Syn
7) Doctor Syn

The village of Dymchurch lies next to Romney Marsh - visited, so the villagers allege, by Jack O'Lanterns and Demon Riders.

The Vicar of Dymchurch was the genial, kindly, and apparently gentle Doctor Syn. So it was, to say the least, incongruous that he would sometimes break into a pirate song - indeed, a ditty known to be the favourite song of the notorious Captain Clegg who had been hanged as a pirate years before.

But eventually Doctor Syn's secret identity became known - and added to the mystery of Romney Marsh.

This was the first book written but should be the last one you read: after creating the character in this book Russell Thorndike went back to Dr Syn's youth and filled in his history from there.