Contraband Hearts — Alex Beecroft

Peregrine Dean, a black customs officer is sent by his patron to investigate rumors of corruption in the Porthkennack customs house. There he is tasked by the local magistrate to bring down the villainous Tomas Quick, a smuggler with fingers in every pie in the town. Fired with zeal and ambition, and struck to the core by his first glimpse of Tomas, Perry determines to stop at nothing until it is done.

Tomas Quick is an honest thief -- a criminal regarded by the town as their local Robin Hood. He's also an arrogant man who relishes the challenge posed to him by someone as determined and intelligent as Perry. Both of them come to enjoy their cat and mouse rivalry a little too much.

But the 18th Century was a perilous time for a black man in England. Two black men have already disappeared from the wrecks of ships. Tomas and Perry must forsake their competition and learn to trust each other if they are to rescue them, or Perry may become the third.