Mystery Review: Murder on "B" Deck is perfect for mystery fans who enjoy fallible detectives who don't make clever observations or brilliant deductions, and prefer crimes to be solved by accident. This is a very average mystery, solved by happenstance based on an implausible object and a telegram with the name of someone who just happens to be aboard ship. In fairness, after receiving the telegram Mr. Ghost does induce a Perry Masonesque confession. The story contains a slight, awkward romance that leads to subjecting the murdered woman to heavy and unfair victim blaming "Oh, she was to blame, all right." (American women apparently are just too nice to live.) Why the unknown amateur detective is given so much leeway to handle the case by the ship's captain is never quite made clear. Although the mystery is thin, Murder on "B" Deck still seems padded with many repetitions of the known facts, the narration of a chapter from a mystery story written by one of the characters (very meta), and the description of a short silent film (the implausible object). There might also have been a touch of Christie-like bigotry. While the story was mildly entertaining, most of the enjoyment came from a glimpse of life on a cruise in the Roaring Twenties. The mystery itself and the solving thereof were minor and nothing special. This was the first of three Walter Ghost mysteries and as I have the second I'll still read that. Vincent Starrett (1886-1974) was better known for his Holmes research and his well-received The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1933), which I'd like to read. Murder on "B" Deck had nothing of Holmes about it and can be left for readers who have nothing else to read or an insatiable curiosity about cruise life a century ago. [3★]
No comments:
Post a Comment