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Slated for in February 2022, Arrow publishing director Emily Griffin acquired world rights, including audio, in the book from Harry Illingworth at DHH Literary Agency. My favourite westward Atlantic crossing detective novel is Peter Lovesey's The Fake Inspector Dew (1981), but A Fatal Crossing by Tom Hindle is a first-rate addition to the corpus [...] A very good debut novel' The Critic Read more Look Inside Details Set almost 100 years ago ( 1924), A Fatal Crossing deftly combines a sense of its period setting with the plot structure and dramatic devices that readers expect a century later. This is a modern murder mystery, but is set in 1924 and is explicitly in the grand manner of the “golden age”, with all that implies – both charming in its setting and being full of outdated social assumptions and a lot of wealth and snobbery, but also full of unlikelihoods and practical improbabilities. When I am reading genuine old fashioned fiction, I just ignore its weaknesses for the sake of the plot and the comfort factor, which they often have in abundance. But I am inclined to be a bit harsher in judging modern books – they don’t have to accept all the assumptions of an earlier period (though they can if they wish), but especially, they could perhaps strive for slightly more realism in the telling of the story (though I do accept a murder on a luxurious transatlantic liner a hundred years ago is never going to be very realistic or down to earth!).
The setting of the ship had such potential for a real air of mystery and suspense but I didn’t get a sense of this at all. The ending I personally thought was absolutely ridiculous. I was actually quite annoyed that i’d read so much just get that ending. Not only that but it left a major unanswered question and made me dislike the main character even more than i thought possible. An autopsy determined they had died from exposure to the cold, an outcome that appeared predetermined as soon as they lost their way.
Whatever happened, it’s a mystery that is supposed to keep readers guessing and hopefully continue reading which I did! I ate this up and I can’t even say why!! This may be a closed-circle mystery, but it wasn’t suspenseful even though they were all trapped on one ship. Birch and Temple spend their days interviewing other passengers, potential suspects and witnesses, going from one cabin to the next while the only thing Temple does is be angry and shout at people and Birch always calms everyone down.
When the body of an elderly passenger is found at the bottom of a flight of stairs on board the Endeavour - a liner sailing from Southampton to New York - ship’s officer Birch is tasked with assisting an onboard police officer with his investigation. So begins the unravelling of a story which involves stolen paintings, long-standing grudges, and keeping up appearances.Gujarat state has a long history of immigration to the United States, a trend that has only intensified during the pandemic, creating brisk demand for smuggling enterprises that masquerade as travel agencies. I spent six months revisiting and refining the story that I’d originally come up with at school, with the end result being that only three of my original characters made it across from the play to the book. All the while, I was reading as many crime novels as I could lay my hands on. Whilst the plot was generally well structured, it felt too slow - the whole story takes place over just four days, but the narrative made it feel like several weeks. Fewer clichéd descriptions and less outrage on Birch's part would have gone some way towards remedying this, but the whole book would have benefited from more stringent editing and refinement.
A book set in my era. In my location. On my transport. An Agatha Christie like plot. A myriad of interesting characters and plot twists. James Temple, the other key protagonist, was also a character I struggled to engage with, although for different reasons. Initially, I quite liked his combative verbal sparring with the ship’s captain, who is reluctant to let Temple investigate. Here’s is an excerpt of their interview: I didn’t finish the play, of course. For the simple, albeit slightly embarrassing reason that I’d hugely underestimated the amount of time it would take to write one. By the time I’d finished the first act, my friends and I had finished school and all moved on to university. Recipes for Murder: 66 Dishes that Celebrate the Mysteries of Agatha Christie (2023) by Karen Pierce People who have never lived in the North and seen subzero temperatures for weeks on end really have no concept,” she said. “This place is colder than your kitchen freezer.”In the summer, the sole motel, Red Roost, welcomes catfish anglers who cast their lines in the Red River. During the winter, it is mainly a refuge for travelers stranded by severe weather, said Lyndi Needham, the owner. There were some incredible twists to the plot, none more than the final twist. I would never have seen that coming and I really didn't sense any foreshadowing even on reflection. Raymond maybe had me wondering at something but I wasn't sure what. Totally. It was a tough process, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t ultimately enjoy it. And, of course, there’s no beating the feeling you get from knowing that the passion project you worked on at your kitchen table is about to be on shelves. After all this time, to think that folks are finally going to read it makes all those tough days seem worthwhile. November 1924. The Endeavour sets sail from Southampton carrying 2,000 passengers and crew on a week-long voyage to New York. A tantalizing and captivating plot, filled with detail and texture to enhance the feeling of the halcyon days of the liners and their times' Shots Magazine
They were migrants from India: listless, disoriented and determined to reach the United States along one of its most desolate frontiers. They had been trudging through knee- to waist-deep snow for 11 hours in whiteout conditions, and two had to be rushed to a hospital. News of the death of a passenger travels rapidly among the passengers, raising speculation as to the elderly man's identity and cause of death. The Endeavour's Captain, McCrory, is on his retirement voyage and is keen for the matter to be cleared up with the minimum of fuss and inconvenience to himself and his passengers. However, one passenger demands an audience with the Captain, identifying himself as a Scotland Yard detective James Temple, en route to New York on "police business", the nature of which he refuses to divulge. He raises certain suspicious anomalies that indicate that the passenger's death may not be as simple as the accident that the Captain is so keen to assume. While adamant that the passengers must not be unduly disturbed, Captain McCrory reluctantly accedes to Temple's insistence upon undertaking preliminary investigations, but only on the basis that ship's officer Timothy Birch accompany him at all times. This historical murder mystery set on an atlantic crossing in the 1920s is unlike my usual reading choices but it turned out to be a good choice nonetheless. This was a story that started out with what seemed to be a reasonably easy to fathom death that may or may not be a crime. All this evolved into an incredibly knotted web of shenanigans. I was hooked from the first chapter.The National Weather Service on Jan. 18 issued a blizzard warning. Blowing snow was expected to limit visibility to one-quarter of a mile or less, it said, with travel advised for “emergencies only.” I thought I would really enjoy this book, as the quote on the cover claims fans of Agatha Christie will like it. Mr. Shand, a naturalized citizen from Jamaica, was released without bond pending his trial. A Livestreamed Farewell Temple is furious that he has to put up with Birch, and so begins their acrimonious partnership in which the pair have 4 days to find a killer, after which the liner arrives in New York, the passengers disembark, and there will be no chance of resolving the case. Birch is a traumatised man who served in the war, left with a bullet wound in his shoulder. His daughter, Amelia, has been missing for 2 years, and his marriage to Kate has fallen apart. He blames himself, he is a shadow of the man he used to be, putting his hopes in finding Amelia on the only person he has any faith in, American Raymond, clinging to a yellow ribbon belonging to Amelia as if his life depended on it. Virtually all the crew, with the exception of Wilson avoid Birch, he is incapable of maintaining any relationship. Temple is a man with his own demons and secrets, he refuses to divulge what police business has him travelling on the liner. A Fatal Crossing by Tom Hindle is a gripping crime fiction set on board a luxury cruise liner sailing from Southampton to New York in the 1920s. The story revolves around the discovery of a dead body on board, and the subsequent investigation to uncover the culprit.
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