KILLIGREW AND THE INCORRIGIBLES. - The Victorian Hornblower by Lunn, Jonathan

London 2002, Headline, First UK edition, hard bound in dust jacket, FINE/FINE CONDITION, 6x9, 374 pages. Third in this series. . AUTOGRAPHED EDITION - signed by the author on a custom book plate on front free end paper. .....................................................................SOUTH SEAS, 1850. 'Wyatt's out.' These two words alone are enough to strike fear and trepidation into every warder and prisoner on Norfolk Island. No-one, not even the most hardened of criminals, has ever survived the water pit - seven days standing in the brackish water, too scared to sleep lest you drown. Officially it's a punishment that doesn't exist but Price, the new commandant, will go to any lengths to stamp his authority on the prisoners............................................................................It is towards this savage penal colony that Kit Killigrew and the crew of the Tisiphone are bound, ostensibly to drop off Price's new governess, and a reporter bent on interviewing Devin Cusack - an Irish political prisoner. But, when an unknown party tries to rescue Cusack, seven of the island's most ruthless prisoners escape, including Wyatt..........................................................................What ensues is a deadly game of cat and mouse among the New Hebrides, where Killigrew unearths a series of illegal trades in a deadly business. It is a task which needs Killigrew's utmost concentration if he is to succeed, but the last thing Killigrew feels is heroic: foolhardy, reckless, indifferent to whether he lives or dies, maybe, but definitely not heroic. He is tormented by thoughts of a personal tragedy that he failed to avert. Ultimately, it is Killigrew's state of mind which threatens to achieve what a tribe of cannibals, a band of desperate criminals on the run and a vicious trader - hell bent on profit at any cost cannot, as he places himself in the line of danger once too often...