The Shutter Telegraph Line
A Novel of the Admiralty Signal Chain

About this book:

On the windswept ridges of Hampshire, the fastest machine in the world is built of timber, rope, and six black shutters. In 1808, the Admiralty's shutter telegraph chain can flash a message from London to Portsmouth in twelve minutes—provided the fog lifts, the ropes hold, and every operator follows the code. But when Station Six transmits a cipher that exists in no Admiralty codebook, young operator Arthur Finch faces a choice: relay the signal blindly, or break every rule in the service to discover who is speaking in the dark.

With his rheumatic partner Vance demanding obedience and a conspiracy thickening in the mist below, Arthur descends from his tower into a landscape of turnpike roads, smugglers' coves, and half-frozen spies. From the Portsmouth dockyards to the corridors of Whitehall, someone is hijacking the nation's nervous system—and the next false signal could send the fleet sailing into a trap. The chain is only as loyal as its weakest link, and the fog is rising.

Rich with the grit of Nelson's navy and the tension of a literary thriller, *The Shutter Telegraph Line* is a gripping tale of codes and consequences, where a single misread frame can change the fate of empires. For readers of Patrick O'Brian, Robert Harris, and C.J. Sansom, this is historical fiction at its most atmospheric and pulse-pounding—a debut that signals the arrival of a major new voice.