A review by jmatkinson1
Winchelsea by Alex Preston

3.0

1742 and the once prosperous town of Winchelsea is now just a haunt for smugglers. For orphan Goody Brown, her world is turned upside down when her adoptive father falls foul of the gang he works with and is mudered. Goody vows revenge and becomes a smuggler, a Jacobite and more.
Although this is a short book at times it feels interminably long and there are huge gaps in the narrative. It also feels as though several 'woke' elements are thrust together and lie uncomfortably in an already packed narrative. We have racism, slavery, lesbianism, transgender alongside violence and a strong historical element. The first part seems long yet Culloden and the rest gallops by - a solid enough book but not a memorable one.