Sea Change - Softcover

Goddard, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593046676 ISBN 13: 9780593046678

Publisher: Bantam Press, 2000

Synopsis

London 1721. William Spandel is deeply in debt and desperate. Sir Theodore Janssen, director of the recently collapsed South Sea Company, Spandel's major creditor, comes to his rescue. But there is a catch. Spandrel must secretly deliver a package to Amsterdam to a man named de Vries, a friend of Janssen.

A man of his word, Spandrel delivers the package as promised, but things soon take a turn for the worse. He narrowly escapes an attempt on his life, only to find himself accused of murdering de Vries. Then de Vries' secretary and wife go missing, along with the secret package. Spandrel senses that he has become a pawn in a game of international proportions involving many players. British government agents, among others, are hot on his trail, convinced that the package contains secret details concerning the great South Sea financial scandal, information so explosive it could spark a revolution in England.

Spandrel believes his only chance is to find the package and to place it in the right hands. But he's not sure whose hands. And he is definitely not sure what the package contained.

About this title

Review

The greatest crimes are ones where a whole society is the victim; Robert Goddard's excellent historical thriller Sea Change has as its background the South Sea Bubble, the vast concatenation of Stock Market frauds which changed and corrupted eighteenth-century English life. Naive young Spandrel is pulled from debtor's prison to carry abroad a book detailing bribes paid by the South Sea Company to the highest in the land, and finds himself the victim of murderous assault and a frame-up for murder. Trying both to clear his name, and profit from the situation, he finds himself chasing the beautiful untrustworthy Estelle and her confederates from Amsterdam to the Alps and on to Rome, where the Jacobites would just love to buy a lever to oust King George, and then to London, where things become even more complex. Spandrel is all the more attractive a protagonist because he is no more than averagely honest and goes through an interesting metamorphosis from victim to hero; Estelle is a villainess with interesting attacks of conscience. This is an intelligent portrait of an age, imaginatively combining known historical fact with some fascinating invention and some moments of desperate excitement or startling revelation. --Roz Kaveney

Review

" Hugely enjoyable... Totally entertaining." -- "Time Out" " A lively mix of political intrigue and high adventure." -- "Guardian" "From the Paperback edition." "Hugely enjoyable...Totally entertaining." -- "Time Out "A lively mix of political intrigue and high adventure." -- "Guardian "From the Paperback edition.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0593046676
• ISBN 13: 9780593046678
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416