This HaBO is from Barbara, who is looking for a book with romantic elements:
Over the years I’ve identified almost all my long-lost or vaguely-remembered books, but not this one.
Not so much a romance, more of a historical thriller. Smaller octavo, cheap printing, possibly a book club or uniform edition, believe it was British. Definitely printed before 1974, possibly early 1960s. It was on the library shelf near A Finger to Her Lips, by Evelyn Berckman, so the author’s name probably began with B.
Set in the 1700s, plot concerns a young woman with some sort of mysterious inheritance, who enlists the aid of a rather tough young barrister/solicitor to help her prove her case, which involved (McGuffin alert!) legal papers in a (metal?) box. They obviously fall in love, there’s a rival suitor and assorted bad guys. There’s a scene where the suitor gets into a fight with the lawyer and they are described as rolling on the floor like children but striking like men. The really memorable character is a pickpocket called Diamond (NOTHING like the boy in Behind the North Wind) who tries to steal from the young lawyer and is caught but not turned over to the Watch because he’d be hanged, causing him to become a useful ally. Diamond looks angelic and carries a knife, being small enough to get under a man’s guard in a brawl.
I know the story takes place post-Culloden, because there is a mention of Highland soldiers singing ‘Will he no’ come back again’ while looking across the water to France. The lawyer and Diamond go to the coast to investigate, and there may have been smuggling involved. Towards the end, Diamond is forced by the villain (who I think had been a cruel master to him) to row him out to a reef after the McGuffin box. Diamond abandons the guy there and rows away, weeping from the stress and fear, leaving the man to be drowned by the tide.
The book is not John Diamond by Leon Garfield or The Lothian Run by Molly Hunter. Evelyn Berckman wrote a book titled The Long Arm of the Prince, which sounds promising but seems to be quite unobtainable.
Can we solve this one?
If it is the one by Evelyn Berckman, it appears that her archives are at Boston Museum….http://archives.bu.edu/finding-aid/finding_aid_121499.pdf
I’m getting Patricia Veryan vibes, but she didn’t start writing until 1978.
According to WorldCat–Louisiana State Univ has a copy of Berckman’s ‘Long Arm of the Prince’ in their library. Could be worth an ILL request through your local library–assuming you are in the US.
Also Open Library has a copy you can request to read digitally.
Another thought: if it was near Berckman on the library shelves, are there any other authors from the same period as the book with names that start with B? Jo Beverley would be too late in time…..don’t know much about 60s or 70s authors.
I’m pretty sure I’ve read this. Unfortunately not at home so I can’t check my shelves. I think it may be by Paula Allardyce/Charity Blackstock. British, writing at the correct time, has several books set post-Culloden (how characters/society dealt with that is clearly something that interested her).
@Susan Reader, if its the Allardyce, it could be Gentleman Rogue (US) /The Moonlighters (UK). There’s an old review by Jayne at DA. Some of the parts fit, but not others.
https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-b-reviews/gentleman-rogue-by-paula-allardyce/
I have quite of few of her books. Time to drag them out for a re-read. If you like post-Culloden books, you’d probably like Johnny Danger /Rebel Lover.
Ooh, thanks – Allardyce/Blackstock does seem to be in that line, and The Moonlighters has a number of similarities – though it definitely isn’t the one. I’ll have to take a good look at her backlist, which fortunately seems to be more available than Berckman’s historicals.
I’m in Canada, so unfortunately my ILLO options are limited 🙁 I found some other titles by Berckman on Open Library, but no borrow option for The Long Arm of the Prince, so no definite answer yet.
Thanks everyone, I will work on these leads. Susan Reader, fingers crossed that you can pin down that memory!