Sebastian and Gemma have until the ship docks in London to uncover the truth behind the Blackstocks’ final evening together. But as they unearth a web of blackmail, bitter arguments and secret affairs among the ship’s guarded passengers and crew, one chilling fact becomes they are trapped aboard with a killer who is growing increasingly desperate…
Comment: This is the 6th installment in the Tate and Bell series I have been buddy reading with a friend for the past months. Thankfully, this was another story I consider to be a good one.
In this novel, Sebastian and Gemma find themselves boarding the ship The Prince Regent, since a lord was killed and the circumstances point to his wife, who is now missing. While Sebastian and Gemma talk to several passengers and crew, they start connecting the dots as to who everyone is and how their personalities fit or not, what might have happened. Everyone claims lord Blackstock wasn't a good man, but why was he found with a torture device on his person? And what meaning does it have that his wife and her lady's maid are described to act differently when he was around? Gemma and Sebastian need to discover the culprit before someone else dies...
In terms of plot I will say that this was probably the one I liked the most in the series. The setting taking place on board of a ship somehow made things a lot more intriguing and vibrant than what I had felt in regards to other plots. Even though lord Blackstock was an unpleasant character, he is dead from the start and that also helped to overcome his awful behavior.
The story develops in a logical manner. Sebastian and Gemma discreetly interview several characters and slowly uncover some misleading information, step by step, until we get to slowly connect the dots. I cannot say that the final explanation was terribly clever, because it wasn't very original, in spite of some peculiar details, but the road until we learn what really happened was intriguing and provided a lot of food for thought. In fact, if I feel some disappointment is because the reasons behind the crime are not as complex as the story line made it look for most of the time.
The characters being investigated all seem to have good reasons to not commit the crime, but as always, as little things become revealed, the more it seems everyone is hiding some secrets. When we do learn of some, as things approach the end, it seems that expectations were taken to an extreme, but I think the author did a good job here, in maintaining a good enough balance between the facts and the red herrings, so that every detail does matter, does make some sense, but not everything is pertaining to this specific situation. Of course, the fun is to see what does matter after all.
In regards to the plot, I feel this fit all the criteria for things to be engaging. I liked the case, I liked how things fit together in the big picture (with some exceptions) but everything ended up being well fit, and the result was very satisfying. I also liked it that the secondary characters were, in general, more appealing, or were described as such. An element in the books I've liked less was precisely this, how unappealing it was to read about them.
Another great element was how the relationship between Gemma and Sebastian progresses. Since the author included the romantic element in the main story line, this has been an expected detail readers wanted to see having more development. Although nothing physical happens between them except some kisses - I am supposing the author won't go there - it was still encouraging to see they are, indeed, on the same page in relation to their feelings and that this might have further development soon.
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