The Figurehead — Bill Kirton

Steam challenges sail for mastery of the seas, new continents open and the world brims with opportunities for people to be as good -- or as evil -- as they choose. But in Aberdeen Scotland, tall ships rule and greed by any other name is still commerce. When the body of a local shipwright is found on the beach, no one, least of all the customers he cheated and the women he abused, seems at all surprised. When the constabulary fail to exercise due diligence it falls to wood-carver, John Grant, to ferret out the secrets and half-truths of the mysterious death. As John scrutinizes the events surrounding the apparent ‘accident', his wood-carving skills catch the attention of William Anderson, a rich merchant -- and his daughter Helen. His commission to carve a figurehead combining the features of two women results in his discovering startling and interconnected chains of events that confirm his worst suspicions. Intertwined with the evolving tale of blackmail, intrigue and death, John's relentless pursuit of the truth tests his relationship with everyone he knows and cares about as, simultaneously, he struggles to resist the pangs of unexpected love. He hoped to find the killer, he never expected to find love.