Turncoat (Marc Edwards) - Softcover

Gutteridge, Don

3.55

97 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1476756422 ISBN 13: 9781476756424

Publisher: Touchstone, 2013

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It’s 1836 and Ensign Marc Edwards, of His Majesty’s 24th Regiment of Foot, is eager for some adventure and intrigue. Unfortunately he’s been posted to the colonial backwater of Toronto, Upper Canada, and at first glance there doesn’t seem to be much chance for that sort of action. But Marc soon learns that the local population is openly chafing under British Rule, and the surrounding countryside turns out to be a seething hotbed of radicals, Reformers, Yankees and smugglers.

Ensign Edwards is given his very first assignment, to investigate the mysterious death of Crown secret agent Joshua Smallman. Marc goes undercover in the small town of Crawford’s Corners, wading into rumours of sedition and secret societies. He quickly finds another kind of action, seduced by one farmer’s wife, and entranced by another who is just a little too close to the murder for comfort, Edwards’ investigative skills and his loyalty to the Crown are put to the test.

Fast-paced and addictive, Turncoat is the first novel of the Marc Edwards mystery series.

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From the Inside Flap:

Upper Canada is in political upheaval, and a government spy is dead

It is January 1836 and Lieutenant-Governor John Colborne has a problem he needs solved discreetly. Joshua Smallman, the man he sent to spy on the growing support for William Lyon Mackenzie among angry farmers in the Cobourg area, is dead. Did he walk accidentally into an old Indian trap, or was he murdered? Colborne wants to know.

The man he sends to find out is Ensign Marc Edwards, newly arrived in Upper Canada, who innocently rides into an area seething with discontent. Any one of the many local radicals would have reason to eliminate a government spy. Marc soon finds himself personally embroiled in the political issues surrounding Smallman?s death.

Seduced by one farmer?s wife, bawled at by another, and entranced by a third, Marc elicits as strong a reaction from the women he meets as from the men. And everyone appears to have something to hide, from a keg of smuggled rum in the barn to secret nighttime meetings. When Mackenzie speaks at a rally in Cobourg, political tensions explode and Marc?s loyalty to the Crown is put to the test.

Fast-paced, eye-opening, gripping, Turncoat is the impressive debut novel of the Marc Edwards mystery series; a series that may prove addictive.

From the Back Cover:

“What a discovery! This witty combination of mystery and history is enormous fun. Don Gutteridge has a poet’s way with language and a novelist’s way with plot and a tongue-in-cheek sense of humour that kept me turning pages.”
–Isabel Huggan

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