"Which is better: to be ruled by one tyrant three thousand miles away or three thousand tyrants one mile away?" (Mather Byles, 1706-1788) Trouble is brewing in the Massachusetts Colony for King George decades before the American Revolution. In the 1720s, foreign powers are trying to loosen the King’s grip on the Massachusetts Colony through murder and racketeering. At Richard Marcus's waterfront smithy, colonists loyal to the Crown make plans to stop their attempts. Petty thief turned successful businessman, Simon Northcott, is thrust into a detective's role to solve one of two murders and, at the same time, wrestles with personal issues of loyalty to the Crown vs. the revolution in the wind. Meet murderers, insurrectionists, racketeers, farmers, middlemen, businesspeople, all connected in some way with the early seeds of rebellion. Travel the roads from Roxbury to Concord and up coastal Maine. Walk Boston's streets with the governor's spies, waterfront hoodlums, tavern owners Molly Cooper and Patience Northcott/Martin, and a shaggy Cambridge warehouse foreman, an expert on Greco-Roman mythology. Put on your wide-brimmed hat, buckle your shoes, and join Marcus's visitors and customers in this sequel to The Gentleman Smuggler of Cornhill Street as they try to keep the caldron from boiling over into revolution ... at least for now.