The Cargo From Neira

I did not know this book was part of a series when I first started reading. The cozy care and interaction between the characters in the household of Dr. Tavernor reeled me in. Murders, maps, and a houseguest who needs protection propel you into this historically detailed and credible 1600’s era mystery in a coastal English country town. And then you find out the doctor was forced to leave his position as a ship’s doctor by an injury, and cannot help but dream of going back out to sea…A comfort read if you like history, mystery, and the spirit of adventure. The rest of the Dr. Tavernor books are now on my want to read list!

Thank you NetGalley and Severn House for the ARC to be published 5/2/23

The latest in the Gabe Taverner series is as well written and the mystery as neat as you would expect from Alys Clare, who has multiple strong series set in a wide array of time periods. Travel, trade, and an attempted suicide form the basis of this entry, which ends in a very dramatic change for Gabe and his friends and family. It will be fascinating to see what happens from here—and where and when whatever it is happens. I like that this series is set in the early 1600s, which I think is a period rather underrepresented in the historical mystery genre. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

A dark and violent tale of greed and murder centered around the ruthless commercial competitions between Dutch and an English East Asian trading companies set in and around Plymouth at the beginning of the 17th century.

But who could have imagined that nutmegs could have been responsible for so much bloodshed??

An adrenaline-fueled fictional journey full of unexpected twists and turns, captivating historical details and an exquisitely drawn cast of characters, The Cargo from Neira should keep many readers on the edge of their seats from start to finish. A riveting new addition to a series that keeps getting better and better!

Highly recommended and to be enjoyed without any moderation whatsoever!

Many thanks to Severn House and Netgalley for this terrific ARC!

historical-fiction, historical-research, history-and-culture, physician, Devonshire, series, amateur-sleuth, multiple-murder, greed, mysteries, family, family-dynamics*****

1605 near Portsmouth, England.
It began with a woman's failed attempt at suicide and progressed through all the issues of the catholic church, the intense rivalry of the shipping industries, and the horrors that greed and the spice trade could do.
I learned a lot about the time period as well as the personal history of the doctor himself.
As a historical cozy mystery, I thought it was a real winner! All the important elements plus lessons in a time of history I am only minimally acquainted with, and realistic characters with interesting backgrounds and presence.
This is the first I've read in series but that did not decrease my enjoyment at all!
I requested and received an EARC from Severn House via NetGalley. Thank you!

This is the next book in the brilliant Gabriel Taverner series and it does not disappoint. One is always guaranteed an interesting and tangled mystery with this author, in each of these books, I learn something new and here Gabe becomes immersed in murder which he unravels with the usual list of characters we have come to love. In this book we discover the rare and precious commodity that is the nutmeg , the animosity between the countries trying to gain footholds in far flung lands and further the wealth of the merchants.. This is a series which gives a bit more insight into the push for Empire against the Spanish, Portugese and Dutch. Brilliant writing and I am grateful to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read and review The Cargo from Neira. Highly recommended

A very enjoyable book. This is the first I have read in the series and I wish I had read the previous ones. I will certainly read any future books. Gabriel Taverner, the local doctor gets caught up saving a potential suicide.. Then the body count starts rising. Alys really evokes the period so that you can almost smell the stench of cesspits and corpses.

All that glitters!______4 1/2 stars

Gabriel Tavernier, ex-ship’s surgeon turned country doctor who also conducts autopsies for the local Coroner, Theo Davey is called out by Jarman Hodge. The coroner’s assistant, wants Gabe to aid him with a drowned woman, a suicide. He hasn’t notified the coroner but instead comes to Gabe. Why? A moment of compassion? The treatment of suicides and their families subsequently is barbaric at this time. For some reason, and we never quite know why, Hodge wants to avoid this. Disquieted, Gabe agrees, although against his better judgement. He’s troubled at the thought of not fully revealing the situation to the coroner. He’s uncomfortable that this might strain their relationship. Only as they are moving the woman she coughs up water! She’s alive! Now it’s a race to save a woman who wishes to die.
When Gabe takes the woman into his home for care, he unknowingly brings danger and intrigue into the household. A break-in that night is narrowly thwarted. He worries for his sister Celia and the midwife Judyth whom he’s become fond of.
Another two men are murdered in the next few days. One man has had objects forced down his throat. It turns out to be nutmeg! At this time nutmeg is worth more than gold. A missing map is found. Everything’s pointing to the murders somehow being involved with riches beyond dreams.
Gabe follows leads and finds murmurs of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the London Company supported by powerful merchants. Both ruthless in their pursuit of the treasure the spice market is. It’s 1605. The international politics of the time are fascinating, as are the church and its doctrines.
The ending is surprising, and yet not so much. What the future holds for Gabe left me on edge.
Nicely paced, a gripping tale that has it all—danger, intrigue, seemingly mystical / magical influences, indeed the stuff of dreams, both good and bad!

A Severn House ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

Nutmeg. How does nutmeg unite an attempted suicide and several murders in what has otherwise been a quiet seaside town? It's 1605 and Gabriel Taverner, a ships surgeon now ashore, is called to attend to a woman who tried to commit suicide- a crime- and who, it turns out is pregnant - making it a potential double crime. She's got a story to tell but then the bodies start turning up and Taverner finds himself following a trail of competition between shipping companies and greed. Fans of the series will be pleased with this latest installment but new readers should know that this will be just fine on its own. I admit to spending a bit of time on additional research (I got interested in, well, nutmeg), which added to my enjoyment of the novel. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of historical fiction.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for this Advanced Reader Copy and the opportunity to review “The Cargo from Neira.” All opinions and comments are my own.

The lengths that men will go for a spice touted as a cure against the plague and even as a “weapon of invincibility,” a lesson on what suicides could expect, and the lure of the sea form the backdrop for “The Cargo from Neira,” the fifth book in the Gabriel Taverner historical mystery series from Alys Clare. And “…there’s more to come,” as Gabe’s friend Theo the coroner tells us. How right he is.

The bodies pile up before Doctor Taverner figures out a complex puzzle involving the near priceless cargo, an unhappy woman used as a bargaining tool and national companies vying for international trade, stopping at nothing -- even murder. Taverner’s in the middle of it all, finishing everything off in what is really a rather abrupt ending; gee, maybe author Clare was late for a bus, I dunno, but everything was brought to a (rather) downbeat finish awfully quickly.

But we’re not quite done; ‘tis time for Gabe’s life to take on a different direction, which he shares with family and friends. All ends are tidied up, and he will soon be off to a new adventure. I’m sure that wherever Gabriel Taverner turns up, Alyse Clare has plans to make it a mystery, which the good doctor will be eager to solve.

It’s 1605, and Devon’s Tavy valley is where sleuth and country doctor, Gabriel Taverner puts himself and his household in danger, when he takes in and cares for a young woman who has attempted suicide in a nearby lake. Suicide is illegal, and if it were discovered that Gabriel had tried to hide that fact he would be in serious trouble. Additionally, the woman appears to have been terrified of something and was trying to escape from that something or someone, which in itself brings danger to this quiet idyllic spot.

The woman appears to be connected to a man found dead in a drainage ditch and a mysterious figure who is seen in the middle of the night peering through the window of Gabriel’s home.

Gabriel begins to uncover clues to these links, and finds that the spice nutmeg seems to be a recurring and connecting theme. Nutmeg is becoming more valuable by the day, not least because it’s thought to be a cure for the plague.

Further clues lead Gabriel into much danger when other murders appear to be connected with the man in the drainage ditch, and therefore the woman he has nursed back to health.

With authentic period detail, skilful writing, and characters who compliment the plot, ‘The Cargo from Neira’ engrossed me right from the start.

Another intriguing and well plotted mystery featuring Gabriel Taverner, a book that I thoroughly enjoyed and kept me guessing till the end.
Fleshed out and interesting characters, a vivid and well researched historical backgroun.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Called out on a cold February night, physician Gabriel Taverner is shocked when the supposed suicide turns out to be alive. The woman is terrified and in her possession is a bag full of nutmegs, a prized commodity in early 17th century. However when men start getting murdered Taverner realises there is a bigger plot here, one that involves rich merchants and the rival London and Dutch Companies keen to exploit the wealth in spices from far away.
I haven't read any of Clare's books before and approached this one thinking it was going to be a bit lightweight and probably mildly entertaining. I was completely wrong! This is a fast-paced story with huge political plots. Yes, the sense of time is weak but the sense of place is strong and the characters actually quite well-rounded. To say this is the 5th book in a series I didn't feel that I'd come late to a party, just that I really liked the book.

Congratulations! Your review for The Cargo From Neira, captioned
below, has been published. Visit
<https://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=83068> to view your
published review.

Please share your review via Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest,
Instagram and other social media venues. Include the #FFreview
hashtag or @FreshFiction in your posts.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.
This is the latest in the excellent Gabriel Taverner mystery series by Alys Clare.
As is usual for a series whose main character is tasked with helping the local coroner with unexplained deaths, there are a number of dead bodies that lead to a mystery that revolves around nutmegs (which were apparently worth at least their weight in gold in the early 1600s).
There is a damsel in distress, there's a mysterious ship, and a treasure map, all woven into the well-established world of Gabriel and his family and friends.
I'm sure that a lot of research goes into the background of these books - the characters, their lives, and all the details of the world are extremely immersive and realistic.
I do think a reader will get more out of the book if they have read one or two others in the series.
It seems like Gabriel may be thinking about a change in lifestyle - I look foward to future instalments.

The bustling, cutthroat spice trade forms the enticing backdrop for the fifth volume in Clare’s mystery series featuring country doctor Gabriel Taverner in early 17th-century Devon. If you haven’t read the previous four books, no need to worry, since it stands alone well. Banda Neira, the place of the title, is a remote Indonesian island that was the world’s main source for nutmeg, a spice in high demand in Europe for its food preservation and reputed medicinal properties.

In February 1605, Gabriel gets drawn into a mystery when the coroner’s manservant fetches him to view a body on the banks of the river Tavy, with the hopes he’ll conceal it was a suicide since these victims would be damned for eternity and their family penalized. The poor soul is a woman, single and six months’ pregnant, which could explain her desperate circumstances. To Gabriel’s shock, the woman soon revives. Gabriel tends to her at Rosewyke, his home, but she’s petrified, unhappy to be alive, and unwilling to talk. Then a second body, a man’s, turns up in a cesspit in a seedy quayside alley of Plymouth with several costly nutmegs in his mouth. Gabriel feels the two incidents must be connected, especially after an attempted break-in at Rosewyke that terrifies his patient and gets him firmly into sleuthing mode.

The principal cast are a congenial bunch whose close-knit relationships contrast nicely with the danger stalking them. Gabriel’s sister, Celia, is a sharp-witted young widow, while housekeeper Sallie prepares comforting meals at a moment’s notice. Most intriguing are the changes within Gabriel as his investigation proceeds. A former ship’s surgeon now living shoreside after an injury, he starts feeling a strong pull to return. While abrupt, the viewpoint switches prove enlightening, and the mystery’s resolution, which offers surprises for Gabriel and the reader, is admirably well-plotted.

The Cargo From Neira is the 5th Gabriel Taverner historical mystery by Alys Clare. Released 2nd May 2023 by Severn House, it's 256 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. (Paperback format due out in 2nd quarter 2024 from the same publisher). It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.

Set during the reign of James I, a spate of killings and a desperate woman fleeing for her life soon involve Dr. Gabriel Taverner and his household in skullduggery and larger machinations.

The plot is well paced and constructed and I was engaged from the beginning. The characterizations are top notch, the dialogue is accessible and the author manages to suffuse the speech with verisimilitude without sacrificing clarity for modern readers.

Since it's the 5th book in a continuing series, some of the interrelationships and character backgrounds will be spoiled by being read out of order, but the mystery and denouement are (mostly) self contained in this volume and could be read as a standalone.

With a well established series like this one, it would make a great choice for a binge/buddy read, or a mystery bookclub selection.

Four and a half stars. A very well crafted mystery. Fans of Andrea Penrose, Candace Robb, et. al. will be delighted with this author.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

A story of the first explorers and trade routes to the far side of the world. The extremely expensive and valuable spices first bought to England and the fights to control these trade routes.
A mystery that came to Dr Taverner’s doorstep and a suicide attempt that would lead to murder.
An exciting and mysterious time in history combines for a thrilling mystery.
Thank you NetGalley and (publisher) for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

The fifth entry in the Gabriel Taverner series does not disappoint. In February 1605, a series of killings disrupts the quiet life of Devon’s Tavy valley. Country doctor Gabriel Taverner is summoned by the coroner to examine the bodies. As he investigates, he discovers a connection between the murders and a mysterious woman found in shocking circumstances. This unexpected patient seems linked to the brutal killings, with a recurring theme involving nutmegs—a precious spice from distant islands rumored to be a cure for the plague.

As the cost of nutmegs skyrockets, Gabriel finds himself caught in a deadly rivalry involving ruthless players. He fights to protect his family and friends from dangerous involvement in this savage race. Will he emerge alive from this perilous web of intrigue?

“The Cargo From Neira” is a thrilling historical mystery that delves into secrets, betrayal, and the high stakes of a valuable spice trade.