The Figurehead

Steam is challenging sail for mastery of the seas, new continents are opening and the world is brimming with opportunities for people to be as good—or as evil—as they choose. This is Aberdeen, Scotland in 1840 and, when the body of a local shipwright is found on the beach, neither the customers and suppliers he cheated nor the women he abused are surprised. But the mystery intrigues wood-carver John Grant. Marks on the body suggest foul play and he decides to look into the death. His work and his investigations bring him into contact with William Anderson, a rich merchant, for whom the dead shipwright was building a new vessel. The further John delves into the shipwright’s manipulations, the more complex the intrigues, abuses and blackmail he encounters.

Anderson commissions John to make a figurehead for the new vessel, which is to be named after his wife, Elizabeth, but she’d prefer him to create something which combines her own likeness with that of her daughter Helen. Helen doesn’t accept easily the restraints imposed on the women of her day and, as John sketches her and she visits his workshop to follow the progress of the carving, a mutual attraction grows between them. She, too, is curious about the death and has her own theories. In a pivotal scene, which creates a rift between them, she demonstrates to John that his investigations are too narrow. As a result, he begins to extend his search and climbs slowly towards the true cause of the shipwright’s death. It is even more depraved than his worst suspicions had suggested.