"Pebble", by Julia Jones

Julia Jones owns and sails Arthur Ransome’s ketch Peter Duck.

The sixth novel in the "Strong Winds" series from Julia Jones.

It isn't easy being the not-quite youngest in a large family - a single pebble on a shingle beach. Liam's home life is complicated by his step-sister's friendship with the troubled son of a Russian billionaire, and his unknown mother has left him an inheritance which she never intended and which he cannot avoid. Liam struggles to protect his family against unseen dangers but a half-term trip up the Suffolk coast in the Chinese junk Strong Winds detonates a series of events which bring glorious discoveries and permanent collateral damage. Can anyone escape involvement in this new Cold War?

• Paperback, 296 pages.