I finished the last book in this eight book series a week or two back, which makes this the perfect time to talk about them!
This is a series of eight murder mystery books set on different ocean liners starting in 1907. Our detectives are George Porter Dillman and Genevieve Mansfield who are employed by the shipping line as detectives on the ships but travel incognito and mingle with the first class passengers looking to try to prevent trouble before it even starts. Except that bodies keep turning up. In the first book it’s only George who is the detective but Genevieve soon joins him on the payroll. Most of the books are set on transatlantic crossings but there are a few on other routes too.
This is all Edwardian and pre-war set, which makes a change in historical mysteries in general and for me to – because there are a lot of interwar series and a lot of Victorian series but not so much set in between. I also really like the cruise ship settings – it’s got some glamour but it’s also a closed group for the murder so you feel like you have a chance at figuring out who did it before the reveal. They’re also pretty easy reading – not scary, not too many bodies or on page violence but enough twists to keep you turning the pages.
These are pretty easy to get hold of – they’re often in the mystery sections of the bookshops still, and they had a spell where they were in The Works all the time so they turn up relatively regularly in the second hand shops. And of course they’re on Kindle and occasionally go into Kindle Unlimited too.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 