The Man Who Fell from the Sky

It is 1803, England is at war with France, and Captain Sir Robert Foster's ship HMS Norfolk is sent to join the squadron commanded by Sir Horatio Nelson blockading the French port of Toulon. Three days out form Portsmouth, a man falls from the rigging and is killed. Foster, required by naval law to investigate and account for the death of any crew member aboard his ship, soon discovers this is no simple accident; no one knows the dean man, nor how he came to be aboard. As the mystery deepens, Foster finds himself having to untangle a conspiracy involving a vast sum of money, blackmail, and embezzlement, which reaches into the royal family itself.