A Fatal Crossing: Agatha Christie meets Titanic in this unputdownable mystery

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It’s quite clear that on a ship you’re a captive audience, but imagine being on said ship with a killer on board! The crossing is being made by the Aurora Lines Endeavour from Southampton to New York in November 1924. The ship is only a few days from New York when an elderly passenger is found dead at the bottom of a flight of steps. Tämä esikoisdekkari on kiinnostanut kovasti varsinkin päähenkilönsä toimittaja Nora Sandin vuoksi, joka on sopivan näppärä ja nenäkäs, itsenäinen ja tehokas tutkijaluonne, ja jota ei juuri pelota mennä epämääräisiinkään paikkoihin. Aivan kuin nuorempi Miss Marple. Sarjan ensimmäisessä kirjassa seikkaillaan sekä Englannissa että Tanskassa tiiviiseen tahtiin. Timothy Birch, an officer on The Endeavour, carries a great burden with him. His daughter Amelia has been missing for two years, and he feels responsible, as he was away at sea at the time. His wife Kate had pleaded with him not to go, worrying that should something happen, she wouldn’t have anyone to turn to, and then of course it did. Kate has since left him, and he’s completely distraught. Temple is furious that he has to put up with Birch, and so begins their acrimonious partnership in which the pair have 4 days to find a killer, after which the liner arrives in New York, the passengers disembark, and there will be no chance of resolving the case. Birch is a traumatised man who served in the war, left with a bullet wound in his shoulder. His daughter, Amelia, has been missing for 2 years, and his marriage to Kate has fallen apart. He blames himself, he is a shadow of the man he used to be, putting his hopes in finding Amelia on the only person he has any faith in, American Raymond, clinging to a yellow ribbon belonging to Amelia as if his life depended on it. Virtually all the crew, with the exception of Wilson avoid Birch, he is incapable of maintaining any relationship. Temple is a man with his own demons and secrets, he refuses to divulge what police business has him travelling on the liner.

Of course, the inevitable happens, and one of the guests ends up dead, and it seems impossible for anyone to have left the hotel. So the murderer is among them, and it’s left to the guests, along with local PC Natalie Fay, to get to the bottom of the group’s hidden secrets and possible motives, and uncover the killer. Fatale Oversteek, de eersteling van Lone Theils, is een vlotte boeiende thriller die elementen van de Scandinavische én de Britse thrillertraditie combineert. En niet alleen omdat het boek zich daar ook afspeelt, en het hoofdpersonage, de Deense journaliste Nora Sand, in Londen woont. De trage start en de manier waarop ze aan het werk gaat met een aantal foto's die uit een oude koffer vallen, die ze in een klein Engels kustplaatsje heeft gekocht, doet toch wel wat Brits aan eerlijk gezegd. Het komt allemaal heel rustig op gang en de gebeurtenissen rollen zich vrij traag voor je ogen uit. En Scotland Yard komt er later eveneens bij kijken, dat helpt natuurlijk ook!The pace of the book was okay, it was neither super fast nor agonizingly slow, just perfect. I loved that we get different perspectives throughout the night, to get inside scopes to the different guests' mind and their anxiety through the night. Two Danish girls disappeared without a trace on a ferry to England in 1985. Then, many years later a photo of them is found in an old suitcase in a second-hand shop in the small English seaside town Brine. News of the death of a passenger travels rapidly among the passengers, raising speculation as to the elderly man's identity and cause of death. The Endeavour's Captain, McCrory, is on his retirement voyage and is keen for the matter to be cleared up with the minimum of fuss and inconvenience to himself and his passengers. However, one passenger demands an audience with the Captain, identifying himself as a Scotland Yard detective James Temple, en route to New York on "police business", the nature of which he refuses to divulge. He raises certain suspicious anomalies that indicate that the passenger's death may not be as simple as the accident that the Captain is so keen to assume. While adamant that the passengers must not be unduly disturbed, Captain McCrory reluctantly accedes to Temple's insistence upon undertaking preliminary investigations, but only on the basis that ship's officer Timothy Birch accompany him at all times. About the case, although I may not have totally fallen for the book did I not realize how it all fitted together before Nora was really in trouble and she herself started to realize that something was wrong with a particular person. I was not expecting that kind of ending, I must admit. For some unknown reason (most likely my inability to read a synopsis properly) I thought this was going to be a historical who dunnit in the style of Agatha Christies And Then There Were None but while there are some similarities it's a little bit different. For one thing it's set in the present day with a group of residents from a small village, and a few unexpected guests, attending a murder mystery party on New Year's Eve at the local hotel.

The owner of Hamlet Hall has organised a murder mystery evening with a 1920s twist, and everyone has their own part to play.There were some incredible twists to the plot, none more than the final twist. I would never have seen that coming and I really didn't sense any foreshadowing even on reflection. Raymond maybe had me wondering at something but I wasn't sure what.

When an elderly gentleman is found dead at the foot of a staircase, ship's officer Timothy Birch is ready to declare it a tragic accident. But James Temple, a strong-minded Scotland Yard inspector, is certain there is more to this misfortune than meets the eye. Now, with just days remaining until the Endeavour reaches New York, their search for the culprit is fraught with danger. Lone Theils δημιουργεί ένα σκοτεινό περιβάλλον που μυρίζει ιδρώτα, ούρα και απελπισία. Παράλληλα, η συγγραφέας διαγράφει τη φθονερή φιγούρα ενός εγκληματία που αρέσκεται στο να εμπαίζει τους συγγενείς των θυμάτων και που δείχνει ότι απόλαυσε την κάθε απελπισμένη στιγμή που έζησαν τα θύματα του με το φόβο στην ψυχή. I thought I would really enjoy this book, as the quote on the cover claims fans of Agatha Christie will like it. The suitcase itself reveals a chilling clue: the name etched in it that of Bill Hix – a serial killer of young women serving a life sentence, who gave no indication of where his victims were buried to allow closure for the families. And difficulties with the timeframe, in that some victims disappeared after Hix was incarcerated. Was there a copycat killer? With the police watching closely, Nora gets to interview Hix in prison.This is your standard murder-at-the-party format that includes many twists and turns that accompany the complex narrative. There are deep lies and discoveries that intertwine between past and present and Hindle has really set a stride with this one. There are layers to these characters motives that are expressive but brutal. As before, we've had to pay attention to close details to follow everyone's steps and motives. This was an engaging read, but it did fall short on its surprises. The writing is innovative and can be deemed as a step up from A Fatal Crossing but the characters weren't as interesting. This could be more since A Fatal Crossing was one of my favourite reads of the year. This was a great follow-up to A Fatal Crossing, which might have been the better of the two, but The Murder Game is a strong story that sweeps you right up. Lone Theils. Ένα χορταστικό, από κάθε άποψη, θρίλερ με μια συναρπαστική και περίπλοκη ιστορία που κερδίζει τις εντυπώσεις.