A young man's search for the truth . . .Northumberland, 1803: Matthew Pryde, a young engineer, is sent to a small coastal village to persuade the local landowner that a lighthouse must be built to prevent the high number of fatal shipwrecks that occur there. Finding himself suddenly on a personal search to discover more about his own mysterious childhood, Matthew finds himself attracted to the beautiful Grace Fenwick, but the consequences mean that the truth may never be told. Orphan Matthew Pryde has a mysterious benefactor who sends him to school to be raised as a gentleman. He endures the tortures and taunts of his fellow students because the school is better than the orphanage, and he chooses to become an engineer, a station frowned upon by late eighteenth-century English society. Matthew's first solo assignment is to build a lighthouse at Onswick on the remote coast of Northumberland. The treacherous coast has ruined many ships, so he is surprised to encounter resistance from the townspeople and the gentry, one of whom was his most ardent tormentor at school. Pressing forward, Matthew realizes that answers to his past are in this town, and somehow he must persevere against his old bully and other residents as they try to run him out. The likable Everyman hero will appeal to readers as historian Archibald enriches the plot with interesting details pertaining to England's remote coastal life. Patty Engelmann Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved