Hurricane Island
Dr. Richard Phillimore, a hard-up doctor worn down by his East End practice, takes a berth as ship’s surgeon aboard the private steam-yacht Sea Queen and soon senses that nothing about the voyage is what it seems. His fellow passengers travel under false names, a young woman of clear breeding keeps to her cabin, and the crew answers to orders he was never told about. The passengers turn out to be royalty fleeing a European court, and a fortune carried below deck sets a scheming officer plotting mutiny. What began as a lucky post hardens into a fight for survival, with the island of the title arriving late as a bleak stage for the final reckoning. Marriott Watson gives Edwardian readers a brisk, atmospheric sea thriller, narrated from within the storm by a level-headed man of medicine.
