The Drowned Ones

This is a ‘Constable Thomas Potts’ historical mystery. It is 1827, and in the town of Redditch in Worcestershire, Thomas Potts is still reluctantly battling to keep the peace, whilst living in penury in the town Lock-Up. Though temporarily spared the grumblings of his demanding mother, away in Birmingham on honeymoon, Thomas is nevertheless depressed at the slow progress of his courtship of Amy Danks: without any money nor prospects, he cannot hope to marry her, and he fears that the lovely Amy will soon look elsewhere. Then the body of a young serving-girl is found drowned in the Tardebigge Canal, and Potts is drawn into the investigation, forced to confront the notorious ‘Leggers’, town outcasts who work on the barges and who, he suspects, may know something. Tom will risk his own life and reputation several times over before he gets to the bottom of this and subsequent gruesome murders…