THERE’S another mystery for Frances Bell to solve with her family of sleuths. After a mysterious boy enters their lives, Frances can’t help investigating. Everyone seems to have a secret, so when her daughter Ann moves to the seaside with a young family, she just wants a normal life with plenty of sea air. But the secrets continue, while 1871 proves to be a deadly year in Seaham. Added to that, Ann has inherited her mother’s hatred of injustice, which brings them head-to-head with Augustus Thorn (aka the Wasp) and his dangerous grandfather. As the story develops, others want to get the better of the Thorns too. Can they all work together to bring them down?
Two generations; one desire for justice.
~
Spoiler alert.
Here are a few extras: The mysterious boy was Tom Young, sometimes blacksmith, sometimes engine smith. In real life he and his family moved about a lot. It could simply be that Tom was following the work, but I decided he was restless. In the next story he moved again and again. He and Ann lived in Seaham for only a couple of years, but their stay coincided with the 1871 mining disaster so the family must have been affected. Here’s a picture of Frances Street where they lived.
You can see the Volunteer Arms which features in the book. It’s where they plot to bring the Thorns down.
Perhaps you know Seaham? In those days there were three separate parts: the harbour village where Tom and Ann lived; Seaham, where I placed the fictious Seaham House in the story; and the colliery villages also known as New Seaham. Grateful thanks to Find my Past, which enabled my research into colliery roads such as Australia Row and Model Street.
Then of course, there was the Glass Bottle Works. That place was important in Seaham Harbour, with many folks working there, so it had to be in the story. That’s why I hatched the whisky operation using the Lollard bottle boat, and had the villain, Augustus Thorn cooking the books at the bottle works.
William Bell, Ann’s father went through a range of occupations. In the timeframe of Written in Silver, he went from Engine Driver (recorded on Ann and Tom’s marriage certificate) to coal trimmer at the Sunderland docks. It must have been hard on his aging legs and back. It was a come down. But coal trimming was still an important job – spreading out the coal loaded onto the ships, so it didn’t make the vessel unbalanced. It was useful to the story line, with the end of the plot taking place at the docks.