1945. Fen Churche follows her dreams and sails for New York. She books passage on a steam ship from France to America, excited to dance the night away in the glamorous ballroom and play games on deck. Nothing will stand in the way of her trip, not even when an eccentric heiress's diamond tiara goes missing...
Looking forward to relaxing with her favourite crossword puzzles, Fen's quiet passage is horribly disrupted by another crime - this time a murder. Fen finds Genie, a young actress bound for Broadway, strangled in her own cabin. With no police on board and a frantic captain, Fen decides to do a little snooping of her own.
When another body turns up, hidden in a lifeboat, whilst the ship is in the middle of the Atlantic, Fen feels sure these dreadful crimes are linked. Through her sleuthing she meets light-hearted lieutenants returning from the war, charming cabin boys and snooty first-class passengers who look down their nose at her. But it isn't until Fen realises that one person is missing from the passenger list that she is finally on the murderer's trail.
With only rolling waves and sea mists for company, can Fen solve the case before they dock in New York and the killer escapes for good?***
(@Bookouture, 21 April 2021, 303 pages, ebook, #ARC from the publisher via # NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 22 April)
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I really enjoyed Fen's last adventure, Night Train to Paris when I did the blog tour last year so was looking forward to this book. I will need to read the first book, A Dangerous Goodbye at some point. This is very different than the previous book and the majority takes place in a steam ship. Fen is passenger intending to return home to England but is waylaid by the theft of expensive jewels and two seemingly unconnected murders and a change of plan which puts her on course for New York. Fen does have a habit of stumbling right into the heart of sinister events. With a long journey ahead of her, Fen determines to find the stolen jewels and the killer or killers. Is there a link between the events? Is the killer and thief among them? I thought this was a terrific read. I really enjoyed myself.
