The Last Hope

The French Revolution has ended, but its shadows linger. In the declining village of Farlingford, a grave-digger shows two visitors an unmarked grave - that of a mysterious Frenchman pulled from the sea years ago, a man who left an indelible mark on the village despite his silence. The Marquis de Gemosac, a Frenchman searching for his lost past, and his English companion Dormer Colville have come seeking answers. What they find will unravel a royal secret buried for decades, threatening to destabilize the new order of Europe. Merriman builds atmosphere with practiced ease, rendering the somber echoes of a village in decline as his characters sift through the remnants of a bygone era. This is a novel about the weight of history and the impossibility of escaping one's blood - who we are is never wholly separate from who our ancestors were.