With great respect for your proven powers in this area, I turn to you for help.
In late 2007 / early 2008, I remember flipping through a book in the bookstore. This I remember: it was set around the time of the Napoleonic wars and the protagonist was an officer in the British navy*, the character was young – late teens? – and a lieutenant, and had been assigned to the customs / Inland Revenue service due to a history of poor performance. The book opens with him, while drunk, finding a dead body on the beach (in Dover?) while watching for smugglers.
This I might remember: the book might have been targeted at younger readers, it may have been the author’s first novel, and it may have had a glossy hardcover (like some of the recent Hardy Boys books).
I’ve done Google and Amazon searches with no luck. Any thoughts would be appreciated!
*This alone is enough of a hook to get me interested!
Well, there’s no shortage of fiction about British naval officers from the Napoleonic era. I haven’t read one that opens like this, but it sounds a bit like it might be one of Adam Hardy’s* “Fox” books. That’s just a guess. Here’s a page on them:
You make a good point, Cal; it’s true, it’s a pretty big genre. Thanks for the suggestion. I took a look at the few Amazon reviews I could find – neither Wiki nor your link had plot summaries, bizarrely – and I don’t think it’s one of those. (It could be Press Gang, possibly, but it’s hard to tell without more info.)
I was in Barnes and Noble at the time, so this was a new printing if not a new book.
Right away your outline reminded me of The Devil to Pay, written by C. Northcote Parkinson, of the famous eponymous law. Fits with Napoleonic war, naval officer becomes captain of a cutter for the revenue service. However, other details don’t fit AFAIR. And you would probably remember that Parkinson was the writer (unless you never heard of him). I had forgotten the title, so wikied Parkinson to find it.
So it’s probably not that one, still I recommend it.
It’s not The Press Gang or Devil to Pay – I’ve read both of those. I just checked my copy of The Press Gang to make sure.
I’ll agree with Chelonaut’s recommendation of Parkinson – his stuff is the closest thing in feel to Forester’s Horatio Hornblower I’ve read.
I recommend C. Northcote Parkinson’s biography of Hornblower. Prkinson was clearly a big fan, and modeled his own hero after Hornblower. You might think that a bio of Hornblower isn’t necessary, but Parkinson’s book attempts to fill in the gaps. It also suggests a very different ending to Forester’s unfinished Hornblower During the Crisis, which differs from the summary printed in the published edition (which wasn’t written by Forester, obviously). It also contains Parkinson’s inferences of what really happened during the events in lieytenant Hornblower.
Thank you, Chelonaut and Cal both. C. Northcote Parkinson is definitely on my list to read, particularly because of his bio of Hornblower-- which you make sound fascinating!, but he wasn’t the author in this case.
The main draw for this book, as I remember, is that the protagonist is something of an anti-hero. He’s working for the Customs service because he’s disgraced himself previously, and the first chapter or two talks quite a bit about his drinking, and I think it spends time describing his hangover. I’ll try searching for “anti-hero”, actually…
The book may have been heavily discounted, too – so it may not have been terribly popular. (And all the more reason I’m kicking myself for not buying it!)
No, “His Majesty’s Dragon” starts on board a ship. I’m also certain there’s no scene anywhere in the book where the protagonist finds a dead body on a beach.
LurkMeister is right, E-Sabbath, but thank you both.
However, I’m pleased to report success! Thanks to CalMeacham’s link, and the search term “Dover” (not “antihero”, “customs”, or “revenue”), I found the book: