The Detective's Guide to Ocean Travel

 

As soon as I saw the charming cover of Nicki Greenberg's middle grade mystery, The Detective's Guide to Ocean Travel, I immediately wanted to read it, but it's taken me a while to get around to it -- so long that the sequel, The Detective's Guide to New York City, is already out!

Set in my favourite decade, the 1920s, and an irresistible location for a mystery -- the closed world of an ocean liner on a short voyage across the Atlantic, and with an appealingly bold but sensitive heroine in Pepper Stark, the captain's daughter, there were so many fun ingredients stirred into this book. It was a bit of a slow burn to start with, as noted by Memoranda, but the action ramps up in the final third to a breathless but satisfying conclusion. This was an atmospheric read which would make a wonderful film, if anyone could afford the sets -- does Clive Palmer still have that replica of the Titanic?