THE COWARD OF GRIMSBY

Eager to escape his past, a widower embarks on a voyage to discover sunken treasure in this novelette of adventure and survival set in the 19th century.

When Cornelius Braddock meets Georges Dufort in the port city of Grimsby, England, he is unaware that his life is about to change. Dufort, “an older man with a walrus-tusk beard hiding most of his wrinkles,” tells Braddock a fantastical tale about treasure lost in a shipwreck in 1808 and furnishes proof of his story’s veracity. Braddock, eager to escape every reminder of the life he shared with his recently deceased wife, agrees to finance and lead a voyage to find the riches. What follows is a tale of intrigue and betrayal modeled after 19th-century adventure novels like Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Dufort disappears on the day of the voyage, and Braddock, who had overestimated his abilities as a sea captain, is at the mercy of the ship’s crew, which keeps him in a holding cell, routinely beats him, and forces him to retrieve the gold. Braddock escapes but is shipwrecked on the shores of Brittany, where he befriends a young boy and his mother, who nurses him back to health. Eventually, Braddock is discovered and escorted to Grimsby, where he is unjustly accused of murdering the crew; he is sentenced to death. Ryan’s book pulls readers in with the romance of buried treasure and holds them with an exciting narrative of an individual’s survival against all odds: Braddock “smiled a survivor’s smile as he floated weightlessly on the sea and watched the amber sunset reflect off the water and illuminate the gold doubloons in his hand.” Even though the story is not linear—the author shuttles back and forth in time—Ryan will hold his readers through the wild ride. Unfortunately, there are several illogical strands in the plot—including the ending—that may leave readers scratching their heads in confusion.

A riveting tale that celebrates the tenacity of the human spirit.