Dangerous Sea by David RobertsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Lord Benyon is travelling to the USA on one of the first of the Queen Mary's voyages on a secret mission to persuade President Roosevelt to support the UK against Germany. There have been rumours of attempts to prevent the meeting so Lord Edward Corinth has been asked to act as companion, he wouldn't be out of place in the First Class cabins and his previous attempts to retrieve politically sensitive letters have shown he can be trusted. A secret service agent will act as Lord Benyon's valet and Edward's nephew will act as Lord Benyon's bag carrier after he had to be rescued from Spain after running off to fight for the communists.
Meanwhile, Verity Browne, communist party member and journalist has been asked to accompany American union representative Sam Forrest back to America to understand how the workers are protesting and uniting against their overlords.
Also onboard are a motley crew of guests. There's a black American singer/actor and his white wife. A racist American senator and his put-upon wife. A widow and her twins, distant cousins to the President, Lord Benyon's assistant, an art critic who commissioned several of the artworks on the Queen Mary, and one of the artists themselves.
But as they undertake the five day journey the bodies start mounting up - can Edward and Verity sort the wheat from the chaff and identify the murderer(s)?
I did enjoy this. However, there were so many suspects/false confessions that TBH I am still a bit confused about who killed whom and why. Well I'm not, what I'm trying to articulate (badly) is that everyone had a motive, means, and opportunity so it feels like any one of them could plausibly have been the guilty party, there was no 'it can only be X because Y' explanation. Otherwise, I'm enjoying the historical political detail just as much as the mystery.
Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.
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