Treason's River

Reluctant Adventures of Lieutenant Martin Jerrold #3

by Edwin Thomas

August, 1806: when you have just offended the most powerful men in England, you can stand firm or you can run. Which is why Martin Jerrold finds himself sailing away as fast as the wind will carry him, entrusted with a secret mission to deliver a letter of great importance.

There are rumours of a conspiracy in America and Jerrold’s mission will lead him across the American wilderness and deep into the heart of a plot aimed at the centre of government. As he blends into the ranks of conspirators, Jerrold slowly realizes that his very presence could be the spark that ignites a disastrous war between England and America. To add to his problems, Jerrold finds himself shadowed by the enigmatic secret agent 13 and the sinister Mr Vidal, who dog his every step.

To save himself, Jerrold must attempt to prevent the conspiracy. The stakes are high and the very future of the Empire rests in his not-so-capable hands. One wrong move and the consequences would be catastrophic, even by Jerrold’s own lamentable standards.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Historical Fiction

416 pages, Paperback

First published April 3, 2006

About the author

Aka Tom Harper

Edwin Thomas grew up in West Germany, Belgium and America before returning to England to study history at Lincoln College, Oxford. His conclusion to the short story 'Death by the Invisible Hand' was published in The Economist in 1997, and the first chapter of The Blighted Cliffs was runner-up in the 2001 Crime Writers' Association Début Dagger Award for new fiction. The first two installments of the adventures of Martin Jerrold, The Blighted Cliffs and The Chains of Albion, are available in Bantam paperback.

Reviews

[Clemens Schoonderwoert · Rating 4 out of 5]

**Should Read as 4.5 Stars!**

Read this book in 2006, and its the 3rd part of the "Lieutenant Martin Jerrold" series.

Its August, AD 1806, and after his somewhat hopeless last adventure and thus offending the most powerful men in England, there's only one way out and that's to set sail to America for the British Secret Service, for there's a rumour of a conspiracy in America.

Over in America, after crossing the wilderness and down the mighty Mississippi river, Martin Jerrold must try to discover what this conspiracy is all about.

Agents from America and Spain are ranged against Martin Jerrold, and they are trying to kill him even though he has to try to infiltrate the American camp and find out what they are up to.

There's also a Miss Lyell who has her own plans for Lieutenant Martin Jerrold, and the further Jerrold investigates the more danger he will ignite in a possible war between America and England.

What is to follow is a wonderful adventure, in which clumsy Martin Jerrold, the anti-hero, will do his best to succeed in his mission but due to his misfortune only manages to ignite a certain hostility that will turn into a near disaster for him and his country, but in the end he will somehow manage the situation by saving himself from this humiliation and almost certain death.

Highly recommended, for this is another splendid addition to this great little series, and that's why I like to call this episode: "A Glorious Treason's River"!

[Ian Racey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jerrold is a character well suited to being written into Burr’s farcical conspiracy, since Burr’s plot was always ridiculous and never had a chance of achieving anything except in the minds of its leaders, but the men opposing him—chiefly, of course, Thomas Jefferson—so convinced that he was on the verge of success that they persecuted him viciously and with the full power of the state. People familiar with Burr’s story will encounter many of the actual historical figures involved—Samuel Ogden, Anthony Merry, Comfort Tyler, Harman & Margaret Blannerhasset, Moses Hook & of course James Wilkinson—but to people who aren’t experts on the topic they’ll come across as colorful fictional characters whose eccentricities clearly mark them out as tailored to the style of a Jerrold story. Burr is treated, I would say, pretty accurately for what his mindset probably was at the time. My one quibble would be it being treated as a great secret that James Wilkinson was a Spanish spy; the great weirdness of Wilkinson is that he could be commander in chief of the US Army under four successive presidents, of both parties, while it was in fact common knowledge that he was a paid Spanish agent. But I think in general that Wilkinson’s appearance here is so brief that it’s a case of Thomas feeling a necessity to include him—I certainly would, in his place—without being able to find an opportunity to give him the treatment he deserves.

[Gouty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the last in the Martin Jerrold series. It sees poor martin dispatched to the wilds of America where he must foil Aaron Burr’s mad scheme to invade Mexico. It is a good fun read about an event in American history which is not taught in many history courses.

[D.w. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martin is not our typical hero. Misadventure and calamity abound and Jerrold comes out on top. Well worth the read. There should be more in this series. At the end of this book we find that Martin is someone whom respect should adhere to, and he is ever maturing as a naval officer.

[Jeff Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story. Very much worth the read