Murder on the Salsette: A Mystery (George Porter Dillman and Genevieve Masefield Mysteries)
There's an undeniable elegance to Allen's series, which takes place on the great ships of the early twentieth century and features a pair of beguiling ship's detectives. George Dillman and Genevieve Masefield are married now, but they conceal this fact as they work to uncover a series of jewelry thefts on theSalsette(which was sunk by the Germans in 1917). The action takes place on a drama-fraught four-day passage from Bombay to Aden in 1909: a young Indian girl is being taken to England as a servant, much against her will; a member of Parliament and his defeated opponent almost come to blows; a woman and her invalid mother play a vicious brand of bridge. A shipboard murder adds to the pressures on the sleuthing couple. Personalities are drawn in stereotypical strokes, from an Italian steward to a Hindi guru to a French seductress, but the ambience and engaging story make for lightly captivating reading.GraceAnne DeCandidoCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved