ABOUT
THE BOOK

Martha Peake is set in a world on the brink of revolution, among the teeming streets and desolate wharves of Hogarth’s London, then shifting to the powder-keg colony of Massachusetts Bay.
Settled with our narrator beside a crackling fire, we hear of the poet and smuggler Harry Peake; how Harry lost his wife, Grace, in a tragic fire that felt him horribly disfigured; how he made a living displaying his deformed spine in the ale-houses of eighteenth-century London; and how his only solace was his devoted daughter, Martha, who inherited all of his fire but none of his passion for cheap gin. As the drink eats away at Harry’s soul, it opens ancient wounds; when he commits one final act of unspeakable brutality, Martha, fearing for her life, must flee for the American colonies. Once safely on America’s shores, Martha immerses herself in the passions of smoldering rebellion. But even in this land of new beginnings, she is unable to escape the past. Caught up in a web of betrayals, she redeems herself with one final, unforgettable act of courage.