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In Bruce Alexander's third period novel, Jeremy Proctor is employed by the blind magistrate Sir John Fielding to be his eyes at Bow Street Court. The year is 1769, and one of His Majesty's navy ships sails into Tower Wharf in London with an officer in the brig, charged with the murder of the captain at sea. Jeremy receives an education not only in the law but in the ways of the sea, and in the nature of seafaring men. In the lusty street world adjoining the Portsmouth docks the lad is nearly press-ganged, and learns first hand the roughness of naval life and naval justice.

From Publishers Weekly
Two days out of Cape Town in 1767, the captain of a British frigate falls overboard and drowns during a violent storm. Surprisingly, seven months later, charges of murder are brought against highly regarded Lieutenant William Landon, alleging that he pushed the captain overboard. When blind magistrate Sir John Fielding, well known for his shrewd, relentless interrogations (and last seen in Murder in Grub Street) is called in for further investigation, this engrossing story expands to encompass the byzantine workings of maritime and urban justice against a rich backdrop of the teeming, scoundrel-infested streets of 18th-century London. Fielding is ably guided by his bright, streetwise assistant, 14-year-old narrator Jeremy Proctor, who grimly discovers, while scouring the seamier side of the city for eyewitnesses, that the reluctant seamen from the frigate are being killed off one by one. Questions abound: Why is Lieutenant Landon so apathetic in his own defense? Why are the ship's garrulous doctor and its unctuous chaplain so wary? Although many characters are stereotypical (a whore with a heart of gold, for example), Jeremy and Sir John make a formidable team and eventually serve both the letter and the spirit of the law in this busy, unpredictable and intriguing story. BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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First Sentence:
On a day in July 1769, I had been sent by Sir John Fielding to accompany Lady Fielding to the Tower Wharf, where we were to meet her homecoming son, Tom, returned from near three years' duty on the India station. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
starboard ladder, ditty box, penitent prostitutes, acting captain, hackney carriage, poop deck, strong room Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sir John, Sir Robert, Lady Fielding, Bow Street, Lieutenant Landon, Lieutenant Hartsell, Tom Durham, Tobias Trindle, Captain Hartsell, Captain Markham, Royal Navy, Lord Chief Justice, Covent Garden, Lieutenant Byner, Old Isaac, Constable Perkins, Jimmie Bunkins, Tower Wharf, Black Emma, Midshipman Boone, Magdalene Home, Tower Hill, Green Man, Navy Board, Lieutenant William Landon New!
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