Moonfleet

In the coastal Dorset village of Moonfleet, the Mohune family lies dead in the church crypt, while the living make their wages running contraband from the sea. When a boy is trapped by floodwaters in the graveyard vault, he finds a diamond hidden inside a coffin. The discovery binds him to a band of smugglers and forces him away from the only home he knows.

Fleeing the authorities and hunted for the jewel, he is driven into exile. His path cuts through midnight landings on the beach, auction halls, sea-caves, and a fortress prison at Ymeguen, turning a local legend into a violent education in survival and loss.

First published in 1898, J. Meade Falkner’s novel is a staple of British adventure fiction, detailing the brutal mechanics of the eighteenth-century smuggling trade.