From the author of One Year of Hell comes a powerful adventure, espionage, and spy thriller novel set in Victorian England.

This riveting tale of spies and international conspirators begins with the mundane, routine life of an ordinary sea captain on board a collier sailing ship whose world is suddenly interrupted by a series of surprising and astonishing events. Reluctantly, he becomes involved in the greatest adventure of his life.
 
This is County Durham on the wild, rugged north-east coast of England in the year of our Lord 1881. Europe is a boiling cauldron of warring states, fledgling nations, mischievous scheming and meddling in the internal affairs of neighbouring nations. Five major powers hold the fragile peace together. Great Britain, Russia, France, Austria and Germany all watch and wait for the tinderbox to spark and ignite hostilities, one nation against another. The German Chancellor, Prince Otto von Bismarck is at the centre of all the underhand manoeuvring and meddling in the affairs of other nations and always to the advantage of Germany.
 
Richard Raine is an experienced master mariner and the captain of the collier brigantine, �The William Thrift� that ships coal from the colliery districts in County Durham to the fuel hungry industrial towns along the east coast. Richard is an honourable man who believes strongly in his principles and is more concerned about his family, the working conditions of his crew, the weather and loyalty to his employer and shipowner Mrs Anderson. He has never shown any interest in the delicate diplomatic issues that plague international affairs and relationships between countries.
 
Richard could never have imagined the adventure that was to unfold when he sailed out of Seaham Harbour in April 1881 and the crucial part he would play in maintaining the fragile peace that existed in Queen Victoria�s empire. More than a century after these events took place the real story of this reluctant secret agent, �A Master Mariner�s Tale,� is finally told.