This Door of the Seas – Val McDermid and Jo Sharp

Published By: Polygon
Pages: 176
Released On: 06/08/2026

At the end of the seventeenth century, a brave group of Scots sail for a jungle-coastline on the other side of the world, the junction between North and South America. Their objective: to establish a trading colony that would assure their hard-strapped country’s future, as the East India Company had done for England. Their plan? To open a passage through Panama, a true “door of the seas and key to the universe.” Instead, what begins as a dream of prosperity quickly turns into a nightmare that bankrupts an already impoverished nation and propels it towards political union with England.

Written as a series of letters home from expedition scientist Dr. James Wallace to his wife Eliza and Sir Robert Sibbald, Scotland’s first Geographer Royal, This Door of the Seas offers a devastating account of the infamous Darien Scheme, the  colonial misadventure that completely changed the history of Scotland.

*****

Thanks to NetGalley and Polygon for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

I haven’t read a Val McDermid book before (although I do own one) and I believe Jo is her wife. I was very intrigued by this book and I admit it was the cover that drew me in.

I’m always wary about books written in letter form because I never think they quite get te depth of a proper narrative and this one felt touch and go. Obviously we only get the writer’s POV, which in a complex historical story like this felt a bit lacking. And it means we don’t get to connect with any other character.

I believe it’s based on a true story, but at times it felt like a non-fiction book, oftentimes just listening facts, which is fine if it is a non-fiction, but in a story book – even one as short as this – I would expect more actual story. I felt a story of this magnitude deserved more, and I think I’d prefer to read a non-fiction about it because this format did not lend itself to telling what should have been an interesting, entertaining, and gripping story.

I think it’s an interesting story and a part of history I certainly didn’t know about, and it should have been save in Val’s hands, but it felt like it was more focussed on the style than the substance of the book and so it fell short. I felt it dragged a lot and felt really long to read.

It’s an interesting premise but it fell short on most points for me sadly.