The Smuggler's Secret

The Smuggler's Secret

The Harrogate Secret is a tour de force of historical imagination, a story with an enthralling plot, thick with the intertwining stories of richly drawn characters, and a brilliantly detailed portrait of the oppression of the poor by those who reaped the rewards of the British Empire. But most of all, this is a story of romance.<br /><br />Born into grinding poverty, ten-year-old Frederick Musgrave spent his childhood living by his wits. Agile in mind and body and never more so than when navigating his little boat across the swift-flowing waters of the Tyne between the busy seaports of North and South Shields. The shillings he picked up running messages and smuggled goods, evading the ever-watchful eyes of the customs agents, helped to feed his family amidst the endless battle for survival fought by so many in this year of 1843. <br /><br />But one night a mission took this small runner to the house at The Towers, where madness had been known to lurk, and there he witnessed a scene of unremitting horror. His silence was bought and the tide of his life shifted. He gained the patronage of Miss Maggie Hewitt, the middle-aged sea captain’s daughter who was to play a major role in shaping Freddie’s life and fortunes as he grew to manhood. <br /><br />But years later the madness at The Towers again threatens, and Freddie must once more rescue his hard-won happiness and security from cruel fate and escape the long shadow cast by Roderick Gallagher, whose power and influence threatened all who crossed his path.<br /><br />The Harrogate Secret is one of Catherine Cookson’s most powerful and ingeniously devised novels, a tale rising to a suspenseful and exciting climax.<br />