Murder on "B" Deck / Vincent Starrett ; introduction by Ray Betzner.

Select an Action

Title:

Murder on "B" Deck / Vincent Starrett ; introduction by Ray Betzner.

Author:

Starrett, Vincent, 1886-1974, author.

Betzner, Ray, author of introduction.

ISBN:

9781613162781

9781613162798

Physical Description:

ix, 235 pages ; 21 cm.

Series:

American mystery classics

Otto Penzler presents

Otto Penzler's classic American mystery library.

Otto Penzler presents--

General Note:

Originally published in 1929.

Abstract:

Passengers making the transatlantic trip from New York to Cherbourg, France, are looking forward to weeks of relaxation, but after an Italian baroness is found murdered in her luxury cabin the atmosphere is anything but relaxed. When the main suspect goes overboard, there are more questions than answers. Fortunately, a former intelligence officer, Walter Ghost, and a mystery novelist, Dunstan Mollock, are on board, and they set out to solve the crime.

Subject Term:

Ocean liners -- Fiction.

Ocean liner passengers -- Fiction.

Transatlantic voyages -- Fiction.

Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction.

Paquebots -- Romans, nouvelles, etc.

Voyages transatlantiques -- Romans, nouvelles, etc.

Meurtre -- Enquêtes -- Romans, nouvelles, etc.

FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General.

Murder -- Investigation. (OCoLC)fst01029788

Ocean liner passengers. (OCoLC)fst01894820

Ocean liners. (OCoLC)fst01043530

Transatlantic voyages. (OCoLC)fst01154517

Genre:

Detective and mystery stories.

Detective and mystery fiction. (OCoLC)fst01726581

Fiction. (OCoLC)fst01423787

Mystery fiction.

Detective and mystery fiction.

Added Author:

Betzner, Ray,

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Avon-Washington Township Public Library	Adult Mystery Fiction Book Hardback	120791003022757	M STA	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

For the passengers aboard the Latakia, the transatlantic journey from New York to Cherbourg promises weeks of rest and relaxation, no matter what class of ticket they have. But after an Italian baroness is found strangled in her cabin, the situation on board becomes more tense. The main suspect soon goes overboard, creating more questions than answers: Did a guilty conscience spur a suicidal act, or was he a witness silenced by the true killer, still at large on the luxury liner.

Enter former intelligence officer Walter Ghost, tapped by the ship's captain to play detective and solve the murder. He's joined by his friend Dunsten Mollock, a novelist whose experience with mystery stories gives him helpful insights into the case. With clues including an amateur film, a doll, and a card from Memphis, Tennessee, it seems the duo have plenty to work with. But will they be able to solve the crime before word of the murder makes it into the steamship's rumor mill, surely sending any guilty persons even deeper into hiding?

Originally published in 1929 and out of print for nearly a century, Murder on "B" Deck is a puzzling-yet-humorous whodunnit set in the Golden Age of transatlantic travel.

Includes discussion guide questions for use in book clubs.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

First published in 1929, this cunning closed-circle whodunit from Starrett (1886--1974) opens in Manhattan, where mystery novelist Dunstan Mollock is seeing off his sister, Mavis, and her new husband, who are about to depart on their European honeymoon aboard the Latakia. After Mollock disembarks, he realizes that he forgot to give Mavis an advance copy of his latest book. He returns to do so, only to be stuck on the ship when he misses his last opportunity to get off. Making the best of the situation, Mollock flirts with passenger Dhu Harrington, who persuades him to start writing his next novel and to set it on a ship like the Latakia. Mollock starts dictating the first chapter to Miss Harrington in the presence of some others who have asked to listen in, including an old friend, former intelligence officer Walter Ghost. The recital's interrupted by news that someone has been strangled in their cabin, and Ghost is tapped to investigate. Ghost probes the possible motives of his fellow passengers, including Miss Harrington, but another life's claimed before he reaches the fairly clued solution. Starrett makes the most of the setting and populates it with an array of potential suspects. This definitely merits being labeled an American Mystery classic. (Jan.)

Kirkus Review

Sherlock-ian Starrett's first mystery, originally published in 1929, invites readers to return to those civilized days when murder was part of the package on trans-Atlantic cruises. Mystery novelist Dunstan Mollock hasn't even booked passage on the SS Latakia; he's just come to see off his sister, Mavis, and her bridegroom, Todd Osborne. But when a last-minute search for a book puts him back aboard the ship after it's cast off, he decides this might as well be the trip to Europe he's never taken before. His pleasure is redoubled when he meets attractive whodunit fan Dhu Harrington and reconnects with his old school friend Walter Ghost, psychologist, explorer, and "the perfect amateur." No sooner has Mollock settled into his accidental voyage than it's upended by the death of Countess Lulu Fogartini, who's been strangled in her stateroom and had her neck broken to boot. Since Capt. Porter knows of Ghost's work with government intelligence, he asks him to lead the investigation, whose sole clue seems to be a pair of "luck dolls" of the sort the countess had been knitting ever since she was a girl in Cincinnati. Metafictional touches abound. Mollock treats his fellow passengers to a reading of his latest whodunit, which features Starrett sleuth Jimmie Lavender, and Ghost and Mollock puzzle over The House of Mystery, a film starring the countess and a man who may just be her killer. The suspects are types and the big reveal's a big letdown, but this urbane, facetious tale will score with nostalgia buffs. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

After he boards a luxury liner to bid farewell to his sister, Dunston Mollock, a middling mystery writer and man about town in 1920s New York, fails to get down the gangplank in time and winds up cruising to England. Content to spend the voyage writing a shipboard mystery, he suddenly finds that reality has trumped fiction when his intended victim, a countess, is in fact murdered in her cabin. The bumbling writer is more fit to play Watson than Holmes, so it's a good thing that Mollock's friend, Walter Ghost, a former intelligence officer, is also on board and perfectly ready to don a deerstalker cap: "I'm a damned dilettante," he says, "with a finger in anything that happens to crop up." Starrett (1886--1974) was a Holmes expert, and this first of three Walter Ghost novels, published in 1929, delivers a frothy and thoroughly entertaining spin on the theme of a big-brained amateur sleuth and his admiring sidekick. Ghost is more William Powell than Basil Rathbone, but that's hardly a bad thing, especially aboard a luxury liner. Another winner from the American Mystery Classics series.