A Zigzag Path A Story of Smuggling in Weymouth and Portland

The year is 1823. On the death of his father, murdered by smugglers, Tom Verney has had to give up his place at Oxford and earn his living. He is given the position of Riding Officer in the new Coast Guard Service on the Island of Portland in Dorset.In 19th Century Dorset many local people supplement their income by smuggling and the local community quickly challenges Tom's moral standard. His immediate superior, the vicious Lieutenant Overton, chooses to make his life difficult, but Tom discovers that decisions are not always black or white and The Law in not always ethically right.A Zigzag Path not only describes the moral course Tom has to follow, but is also J Meade Falkner's name for the smugglers escape route up the cliff of White Nothe in Moonfleet his novel on smuggling. It is on this path that Tom has to make choices which decide his future and the future of his new friends.