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

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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.

When the body of an elderly passenger is found at the bottom of a flight of stairs on board the Endeavour - a liner sailing from Southampton to New York - ship’s officer Birch is tasked with assisting an onboard police officer with his investigation. So begins the unravelling of a story which involves stolen paintings, long-standing grudges, and keeping up appearances.Utter pap. The two main characters were wooden and lifeless and parodies of whatever it was the author thought those characters should be.

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. Disappointing. I read a couple pleasant ship mysteries by Conrad Allen (who is really someone else). The best was SS Murder by QPQ. Tom Hindle writes this section well as I thought it was good that this initial discovery of the body contains humour, yet also the initial clues and questions that the reader might not want to consider. For example, he writes: Still mad that I spent actual time reading this. On holiday, no less. Less cosy crime, more lazy crime. No fun, too confusing to follow, and a twist at the end which makes no sense and isn’t even interesting, let alone satisfying.November 1924. The Endeavour sets sail to New York with 2,000 passengers - and a killer - on board . It would have been illuminating to hear more about her research methods and tactics, vis a vis archival research. It’s obvious she knows this story inside and out.

I'm not going to lie, this book really was a slog to read, I found it too long and also the plot just didn't flow right. Set almost 100 years ago ( 1924), A Fatal Crossing deftly combines a sense of its period setting with the plot structure and dramatic devices that readers expect a century later. Well you do like more noirish reads than me, so maybe you would find it more appealing. I’ve read one Conrad Allen book but I can’t remember the title. I am still looking for a copy of the QPQ title you mention. I wish Clive Cussler, in addition to funding the searches, had thrown some connections her way for a good editor and proofreader. For the above reasons, whilst I genuinely did enjoy the story and wanted to know how it ended, I do not think I would have persevered to the end had I not felt obliged to leave an informed review.

Retailers:

I was first drawn to this book because of the beautiful cover, it’s very in keeping with the story. A tantalizing and captivating plot, filled with detail and texture to enhance the feeling of the halcyon days of the liners and their times' Shots Magazine On the private island of Castello Fiore - surrounded by the glittering waters of Lake Garda - the illustrious Heywood family gathers for their son Laurence's wedding to Italian influencer Eva Bianchi. With just days remaining until they reach New York, and even Temple's purpose on board the Endeavour proving increasingly suspicious, Birch's search for the culprit is fraught with danger. This is a modern murder mystery, but is set in 1924 and is explicitly in the grand manner of the “golden age”, with all that implies – both charming in its setting and being full of outdated social assumptions and a lot of wealth and snobbery, but also full of unlikelihoods and practical improbabilities. When I am reading genuine old fashioned fiction, I just ignore its weaknesses for the sake of the plot and the comfort factor, which they often have in abundance. But I am inclined to be a bit harsher in judging modern books – they don’t have to accept all the assumptions of an earlier period (though they can if they wish), but especially, they could perhaps strive for slightly more realism in the telling of the story (though I do accept a murder on a luxurious transatlantic liner a hundred years ago is never going to be very realistic or down to earth!).

No one in this book was likeable or interesting. The plot was just ramming in character after character all of whom could be the killer so like 'Mystery' all of whom by the way were pointless pastiches too. Then ram in a few careening (and utterly pointless) 'plot twists' to make the reader oooo and aaaaah. A book set in my era. In my location. On my transport. An Agatha Christie like plot. A myriad of interesting characters and plot twists. The setting of the ship had such potential for a real air of mystery and suspense but I didn’t get a sense of this at all.I’m limited in what I can say about this book without spoiling it because even comments on some of the techniques used would reveal too much. Let’s just say that I struggled to get into this at first and was afraid that it was too much of a “murder mystery template” but that it ultimately proved me wrong, to my delight. I particularly enjoyed how at the end I thought to myself “the ending would be cooler if this happened” and then, to some extent, it did - although the impact was even more so. What took the cake though was the ending. My initial review said that I gasped out loud – I did!!!!! – but upon reflection, I think it’s an utterly underserved plot twist meant to do nothing but that: induce gasps. I don’t want to compare it with GOTs “Red Wedding” because different things happen, but it was about as unexpected. I usually LOVE unexpected plot twists, I live for them in my murder mysteries, but this one was so out of the blue, so far-fetched, ungracious and ungrateful to everything that came prior that it felt wrong and unearned. It’s super hard to talk about it without spoiling anything but it’s basically meant to turn the whole novel on its head and make you see it in a different light. I just thought it was lazy writing to make an otherwise super dull plot and average novel more exciting. I mean, I’m 100% pro-choice, I just wish the author had chosen a different ending for this book.