A very likeable main protagonist plus an interesting setting aboard a ship, some characters from the first book in the series, some new. And a small brown bear… very entertaining read. I definitely plan to continue the series. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

Laurence Jago is back with his super sexy green specs and his chronic addiction to pain medication and this time he’s on a boat bound for Philadelphia with a treaty that could save the wold. Well it will stop a war nobody really wants and can’t be bothered to do. But wait…there’s a murder. Or is there. This is basically a country house murder at sea, all our characters are brought together and held captive on the boat nobody is who they say they are they are all keeping secrets and of course Jago is done wrong by a no good dame, this time of the Irish variety. For such a cynic he falls in love awful women, awful quickly, granted she was the only woman available under 50 and he’s not had any for longer than he’d care to remember but come on man she didn’t even feed her bear! Philpot remains the best character and I delight in colours his face turns and I do still quite like Jago even though his taste in women is appalling. It has to be the specs right?

A great follow up to Nattress' debut novel Black Drop. We once again follow Laurence Jago, this time largely trapped aboard a ship sailing for America, and populated by a wide cast of characters all with secrets to keep. Jago, publicly disgraced but secretly on a mission to protect an important treaty, is once again a fascinating protagonist, hard to warm to but thoroughly compelling all the same.

I really enjoyed this book, historical murder mystery on the high seas of the 1790's. Having first met Laurence Jago in Black Drop, there was a welcome return of some characters as well as a cast of new ones. It can be read as a stand-alone but seeing as the first book is also well worth reading, you are more aware of the characters and what has gone before. Laurence is trying to redeem himself for a previous disgrace whilst he was a clerk in the Foreign Office, His mission is to covertly assist a civil servant who is taking a government treaty to Congress that will prevent the Americans from joining with the French in their war against Britain. The civil servant hides the treaty on board the ship but then dies in mysterious circumstances and Jago realises he must find that treaty before the murderer does. There are plenty of side plots and false trails but the is a good mystery, highly recommend.

Disgraced civil servant Laurence Jago is now travelling across the Atlantic with a hidden mission, to protect the important Treaty being carried to the Americas. However disaster strikes almost immediately when the man with treaty is killed. Now various factions are after the document including the French and Jago does not know who to trust.
Whilst I really enjoyed 'Black Drop' I feel that this novel shows Nattrass really hitting her stride. The machinations of the plot are cleverly put together, Jago being the 'innocent' and surrounded by a wonderfully drawn cast of characters. The setting is brilliantly realised, just after the French Revolution and the loss of America, it has been fantastically researched. This is developing into an excellent series.

I thoroughly enjoyed Black Drop, the first in the series featuring Laurence Jago, and this is just as good if not better. The year is 1794 and Jago finds himself reluctantly acting covertly on behalf of the British government on board a ship to America carrying the Jay treaty, a key document which will ensure that the United States do not join France in the war against Britain. He is an amusing and detailed but naive narrator of what follows as suspicion and murder fall upon the passengers in turn - which is the French agent he knows is on board? Who can he trust?

The closed environment of the ship and the limited number of passengers make this a locked room mystery and Nattrass successfully kept me guessing until the end, though there is often the feeling that as readers we can guess more than Jago himself.

Recommended.

This is the sequel to Black Drop, Leonora Nattrass’ 2021 debut novel which introduced us to the character of Laurence Jago. Blue Water works well as a standalone historical mystery, but I would recommend reading both books in order if you can.

It’s December 1794 and former government clerk Laurence Jago has just left Britain aboard the packet ship Tankerville. The ship’s destination is Philadelphia, where one of Jago’s fellow passengers, Theodore Jay, will deliver a treaty to President Washington. The Jay Treaty, negotiated by Theodore’s father, the American envoy John Jay, is designed to promote peace between the two nations and prevent America from joining forces with France against Britain. War Office official Mr Jenkinson, also on board the Tankerville, has offered to hide the Treaty in a safe place, but when he is found dead and the papers disappear Jago realises it’s up to him to find them and prevent them from falling into French hands.

Well, I enjoyed Black Drop but this second book is even better! With almost the entire story taking place at sea and therefore with a limited number of characters, the mystery has a ‘locked room’ feel and kept me guessing until the end. Leonora Nattrass very skilfully casts suspicion on first one character then another and it soon appears that almost everyone on the ship has a secret to hide. Although I correctly predicted a few of the plot twists (and was impatiently waiting for Jago to discover them too) the eventual revelation of the fate of the Treaty came as a complete surprise to me. I was also surprised when I read the author’s note at the end and saw that some parts of the plot were based on historical fact, although the details have been added to and embellished using the author’s imagination.

Laurence Jago continues to be an engaging narrator, though not always the most reliable one due to his occasional poor judgement, the secret sympathies we learned about in the previous book and his tendency to succumb to the temptations of ‘black drop’ laudanum. I was pleased to see the return of some other characters from the first book including the journalist William Philpott (whose attempts to compile a dictionary of seafaring superstitions add some humour to the book) and Theodore Jay’s slave and companion Peter Williams, always a calm and wise presence amid the onboard chaos. And of course, there are plenty of colourful new characters amongst the passengers, including two French aristocrats, an American plantation owner and an Irish actress with a dancing bear!

Choosing to set this novel at sea gives it a very different feel from Black Drop. Apart from a few glimpses of Madeira and then Praia, capital of Cape Verde, the whole story unfolds aboard the Tankerville and we are given lots of insights into life during a long sea voyage. The use of nautical terminology never becomes too overwhelming but it all feels authentic and due to the setting, time period, elegant prose and frequent encounters with French warships, I was strongly reminded of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series. I was quite sure Leonora Nattrass must have read O’Brian and when I reached the acknowledgements at the end of the book I found that I was right!

If it’s not already clear, I loved this book and hope there’s going to be a third in the series.

Loved Black Drop and loved this one, another well plotted and gripping story.
There's a complex plot, a bit claustrophobic setting, and Laurence Jago is a fleshed out and interesting character.
The historical background is vivid and the mystery solid.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I haven't yet read Black Drop so didn't know what to expect from this, the second in the series. Laurence Jago is a likeable character working under cover on his voyage to America. The setting on the ship Tankerville gives it a locked room type setting, with a cast of characters from aristocrats to slaves across the decks. At times this makes it feel claustrophobic, this is the skill of the writer, she really brings the story to life and its very atmospheric and feels historically accurate. Time for me to read the first in the series.

A gripping mystery full of suspicious characters and places to hide aboard a ship crossing the Atlantic.
Blue Water took a while to get going for me, but once it did I was hooked. Trying to work out who was behind the disappearance of the Treaty and having suspicions about each and every character aboard, I was well and truly sucked into the story.
Such a clever read with historical facts added to fascinate and add such flavour.
Almost like a locked room mystery, the fact this the setting was primarily on board the Tankerville meant that as the reader you can only assume you know what is happening, but as the way with many well written mysteries, the twists keep coming to ensure nothing is as you think.

Great second novel in this series, was a little apprehensive about the change of setting - predominantly London and government intrigue is very different from almost entirely at sea and it could all go a bit ‘master and commander’.
I needn’t have worried - the continued focus on the Treaty gives plot readthrough and the core characters are strong, with an interesting additional set of personalities. Some
Nice intrigue built up - deaths and thefts in a broadly closed setting are always good for a bit of mystery.
Keen to know what happens next!

I loved Black Drop ,so I was so excited to be approved by NetGalley to read Blue Water by Leonora Nattress which continues Laurence Jago’s story now a disgraced clerk. But you can enjoy this book without having read Black Drop.
I received a copy of the book for a free and unbiased review.
Laurence Jago continues to be a reluctant spy but this time he is now stuck on a ship bound for Philadelphia. He has been told his mission is to help the civil servant carrying a treaty that will make all the difference in war between the French and the British. But then the civil servant is murdered, so now Jago must find the murderer before he becomes the next victim.do the right t
Jago, is an interesting character, you can tell he is out of his depth but he keeps trying to things and complete the mission. His judgements continue to be off kilter.
Many of the characters from Black Drop reappear here such as Philpott (I loved his reflections of ship life and customs),Peter Williams and Jay. But there is a new cast of colourful characters and suspects on board the ship including the crew, an Irish actress, runaway French aristocrats, an American plantation owner and a dancing bear.
The book is told from Jago’s point of view (which isn’t the most reliable) and I could emphasise with his confusion when trying to solve the mystery of a murder and find the treaty while trying to navigate the crews customs and his travelling companions increasingly strange behaviour.
The writing is vivid, and I felt immersed in the whole awfulness of travelling by sea in the 1700’s and as always, I enjoyed reading the author’s note at the end of the book which provides the historical context.
The plot races along, there were times when I couldn’t keep track of all the characters and motivations, but it all felt into place with an unexpected ending.

Perfect for Fans of
Black Drop. Anyone who enjoys a good thriller/murder mystery set in a unusual historical setting.

This is my first Leonora Nattrass book, but I do have Black Drop on my shelf which I will definitely be picking up soon, given how much I enjoyed Blue Water.
Blue Water is a locked room murder mystery with an eccentric cast of characters, and a clever setting - on board the Tankerville, a ship crossing the Atlantic from England in the 1790s. This historical detail was great and I really felt like I was on board the Tankerville thanks to Nattrass' descriptive writing.
Laurence Jago is an interesting, quite unassuming, likeable protagonist. His interactions with the other characters was interesting, although I didn't feel his interactions with Lizzie McKendrick brought anything more to the story.
If you're a fan of C J Sansom and Andrew Taylor (which I am), Blue Water is definitely for you.

A quite decent follow-up to Black Drop, although Laurence Jago seems to have learned nothing from his experiences and is as much a dolt as he was, especially in his dealings with Lizzy McKendrick, as if anyone with half a brain wouldn't have seen through that little minx.. The plot suffers from a lack of breadth as do almost all books set in so limited a scene as a ship at sea, but Natrass did her best with it and the book was engaging enough, despite the abject failure of the attempt at plot-twist introduction. These failed through being as predictable as night following day, and the last third of the book did see me tempted to skim through in an attempt to get to the end - not because I was eager to find out what happened to the treaty but because I was becoming bored with the whole merry-go-round and I just wanted it over, All in all, not a bad second outing for Laurence Jago. The writing was superb and the period setting well rendered, but the plot development suffered from the limited scope offered by the book's setting.

So, going into this book I hadn’t read the first one in this new series ( this being only the second in the series). That’s entirely my fault for not checking.
Although I may have had a better feel for the main character per se, this didn’t detract from the fact that this is an excellent and well written novel.
There was a great feel for the historical nature of this story, with clear research gone into the era resulting in an extremely atmospheric tale.
I look forward to more from this author.

The second book in the Laurence Jago series sees the disgraced Foreign Office clerk on a mission to help deliver a treaty to Congress to prevent America from joining forces with France to wage war against Britain. Based loosely on true facts this is a novel with a colourful cast of characters and a deft plot.
Jago joins the ship ‘ Tankerville’ ’ to make the long sea crossing but when his colleague dies in dubious circumstances and another death follows he has an abundance of suspects and questions for himself. Where has the treaty been hidden? Why have these men died? Who can he trust onboard the ship?
This is a good historical thriller which gains momentum and more excitement as the ship’s voyage progresses.
Thank you to the publishers for the ARC.

Enjoyed Black Drop by this author so excited to read this new one. A good read that grips the reader from the start. Well written.

Blue Water by Leonora Nattrass is the first-person account of an intriguing trip across the Atlantic on the mail ship, Tankerville, in the company of some scheming passengers such as two fugitive French aristocrats, an American cotton plantation owner, an Irish performer who may or may not be a spy, and a maybe-freed slave.

The story is written as the personal report of a disgraced ex-clerk from Britain’s Foreign Office, Mr Laurance Jago. Blue Water is set entirely aboard the mail ship Tankerville as it sails from Britain down the Spanish coast to Northern Africa, west to the Caribbean and then north to Philadelphia. Heading across the Atlantic, the captain discovers a shortage of fresh water and returns to a Portuguese port where they are harassed by a French war ship. Readers of Patrick O’Brian’s Master & Commander series will be in their element as they read of the ongoing harassment and eventual encounter with the French war ship.

Mr Laurence Jago is in fact not a former Foreign Office clerk. His secret mission is to help a civil servant charged with the safe delivery of a most-important treaty to the US Congress. The treaty will stop the Americans joining the French in their war against Britain. The civil servant who hid the Treaty for safekeeping is ‘accidentally’ killed and so Mr Jago now faces the task of finding the Treaty’s hiding place. He realizes that several of the other passengers also want to find the treaty and suspects both the captain, some of the officers and most of the crew of also seeking the treaty for financial reward. A second death makes Mr Jago realize he must find the Treaty quickly, if no one else already has, and, to add to the tension, that he may be the killer’s next target.

I enjoyed this book and recommend it to readers of mystery and suspense and to the niche group of readers of historical maritime novels. The plot is well-paced, but don’t expect thrilling naval chases and battles. This is an interesting and extended interaction between richly-crafted and intriguing characters. The language is appropriate for the era and we are treated to a descriptive glimpse into ship life to such an extent that the plot and the finale were less significant to my enjoyment of the book than the whole story which I savoured rather than devoured.

In this sequel to Black Drop, our protagonist Jago (who may - in the preceding story - have committed light treason) is onboard a mail ship bound for Philadelphia. His shot at redemption lies in protecting the Jay Treaty, an explosive UK-US political agreement. Unfortunately the treaty has vanished, a diplomat is dead, and their little British mail ship is being pursued by warships full of angry Frenchmen and pirates.

I found Blue Water more entertaining and accessible than Black Drop: the plot is more narrowly focused and the Georgian period detail less distracting. I also enjoy a good locked-room thriller/murder mystery.

Sadly, I found the central plot under-powered, and the solution to the key mystery Deus Ex Machina (I searched my eARC, and there was ZERO foreshadowing of the final twist, it came out of nowhere). I would have liked more fleshing out of the recurring characters such as Jago and Philpott, since I didn’t feel I learned anything new about either beyond Black Drop. However, I’m delighted Peter Williams reappeared, and was cheering him on at several points.

amazing

When I reviewed debut historical novel Black Drop by Leonora Nattrass, I observed that this was the sort of book which leaves one wishing for a sequel. Its eccentric protagonist, Laurence Jago, clerk to the English Foreign Office in the final years of the 18th Century, and the larger-than-life characters who cross his path, were so captivating, that the prospect of meeting them again was an enticing one.

That said, Black Drop worked perfectly as a standalone novel, so a sequel seemed too much to ask for. But here we are, less than a year later, and a second instalment – Blue Water – is in the offing. Iago, who ended up disgraced and expelled from His Majesty’s Service in Black Drop when his French sympathies were discovered, leaves his family home in Cornwall, and joins his friend and mentor William Philpott as a trainee journalist aboard the mailship Tankerville. Among fellow travellers on the Tankerville’s Atlantic crossing is the hapless Theodore Jay, son of the American envoy, who has been tasked with delivering to the British Ambassador at Philadelphia a treaty between Britain and America. This treaty, once ratified, will keep the newly independent nation from backing the French.

Unbeknown to Philpott, however, Iago has also been given a secret mission by his erstwhile boss, Foreign Secretary Lord Grenville – and an opportunity to redeem himself. But what seems like a relatively straightforward brief soon turns complicated when the Tankerville is visited by a suspicious death.

The change of setting to a “naval” one is inspired, allowing Nattrass to place her original cast of characters in a different context, thus providing a welcome contrast to her debut novel. The sea-sprayed tale she recounts owes much to the tradition of British writers of naval fiction, who duly get a mention in the acknowledgments: Nicholas Monsarrat, C.S. Forester and “the greatest of them all, Patrick O’Brian”.

Blue Water is a worthy successor to this lineage. Nattrass pulls out all the stops. Not only is there a devious mystery (or mysteries) at the novel’s heart, but it is also peopled with colourful characters and incidents – a young Irish actress (Iago’s love interest) and her performing bear; a clairvoyant French aristocrat who conducts a seance on board; references to maritime omens and superstitions; sea battles and attacks by giant creatures of the deep. But ultimately, what marks out this novel, like its predecessor, is its mixture of rip-roaring adventure and comedy, as well as the knowledge that, however unlikely this may appear, the plot is ultimately “based on a true story”.

4.5*

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