The Moonlit Murders by Fliss ChesterMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Three and a half stars.
James and Fen are finally ready to leave France and come back to England. James is travelling First Class and Fen is travelling Second Class. Whilst waiting to board Fen meets a glamorous young couple, Stanley and Genie, he's a former radio star about to turn movie star and she's a former dancer who wants to break into theatre - they are on their way to New York. Meanwhile, all the passengers are distracted when a wealthy American woman in First Class creates a scene thinking her Cartier tiara has gone missing.
That evening, James and Fen are invited to dine at the Captain's table, alongside Stanley and Genie, and the American woman Mrs Archer and her niece Eloise. James drops a bombshell when he tells Fen he isn't planning on disembarking at Southampton, instead he intends to travel on to New York. Eloise persuades her aunt that Fen would be a sensible companion on the trip and persuades her to pay for Fen's cabin.
However, disaster soon strikes and Mrs Archer's priceless jewellery is stolen from her cabin while she slept. James and Fen volunteer to search the ship and investigate, not least to stop Mrs Archer from accusing all and sundry of the theft. But while searching the lifeboats Fen and Eloise come across a grisly discovery, one of the other Second Class passengers has been stabbed and wrapped in a swastika flag.
Only Fen knows that the dead passenger is also a German, was he a Nazi? Why was he on the boat? What was his name? Who else knew he was a German national?
I am enjoying these novels, particularly the historical detail. However, as with most cosy mysteries, there is a fair amount of repetition eg Fen feels awkward comforting people, Fen's affectation about creating crossword puzzles out of random key words in the investigation etc.
Are those small green shoots of romance between James and Fen - at least on his part?
Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.
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