A Fatal Crossing: Agatha Christie meets Titanic in this unputdownable mystery

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For some unknown reason (most likely my inability to read a synopsis properly) I thought this was going to be a historical who dunnit in the style of Agatha Christies And Then There Were None but while there are some similarities it's a little bit different. For one thing it's set in the present day with a group of residents from a small village, and a few unexpected guests, attending a murder mystery party on New Year's Eve at the local hotel. The girls on the England" boat was an interesting detective story, I came to like Nora Sands, an experienced journalist who accidentally stumble across a photo that will affect her life considerably. I always like to read books in which a person begins to unravel the disappearance of several years before and this book was no exception. However, I found that although the book interesting was it not exactly exciting to read. I felt like it was missing something to really catch my interest.

So, you see, THAT plottwist alone is a good enough reason to read this book already. It's really good, you'll enjoy it. And again: take a look at that cover. Isn't it gorgeous? The story brought two key characters in Birch, the ship's officer and Temple, the policeman who happened to be on the boat; don't ever believe in coincidences. Birch really had my heartstrings with his rather tragic past and depressed nature. I liked him a lot and felt him to be the intergrity compass of the piece. Temple seemed shady from the start with a slice of maybe he's okay. I was drawn to A Fatal Crossing first by the cover, then when I saw that it was a Golden Age-style mystery novel set at sea in the 1920s, I was even more interested! The two detectives are interesting characters in their own rights. Birch is struggling with the tragic events of his own life which slowly and painfully come to the surface in the story. Temple is abrasive, rude and really quite arrogant – until events conspire to change his approach. Together, they are an unusual and stormy partnership – something that is intriguing to follow.

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I love a good closed circle murder mystery so this was right up my street and so well done. There's a small(ish) cast of not especially likeable characters, some secrets from the past, a few grudges and a lot of twists and turns. 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.

This was a great follow-up to A Fatal Crossing, which might have been the better of the two, but The Murder Game is a strong story that sweeps you right up. I initially rated this three stars but I decided that a book that made me let out a groan [ frustrated, not sexual] loud enough to shake awake my co-workers at our late shift at the psych ward deserves two stars max. About the case, although I may not have totally fallen for the book did I not realize how it all fitted together before Nora was really in trouble and she herself started to realize that something was wrong with a particular person. I was not expecting that kind of ending, I must admit. 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. Why did the elderly passenger apparently decide to use an outside stairway in poor weather without putting on a coat when there was an internal staircase close by?

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. I guess I just wanted to know who the murderer was but guess what, it’s only been three weeks since I finished the book and I have already forgotten, lmao.

Reipas päähenkilö Nora Sand löysi antiikkiliikkeestä ostamastaan vanhasta matkalaukusta tyttöjen valokuvia ja yhdessä kuvassa oli tutun näköisiä nuoria tyttöjä englannin lautalla. Tytöt katosivat lautalta. Katoamisesta oli kulunut jo pitkä aika, mutta aina välillä lehdet kaivoivat jutun esille. Nyt Noralla oli aikaa paneutua katoamismysteeriin. Avukseen hän sai lapsuuden ystävänsä ja ihan selvästi dekkarin sivuilla alkoi sydämen sykkeet kiihtyä ja romantiikanpölyä sai pyyhiskellä dekkarin sivuilta. I would maybe have liked a little more of certain characters and there were a couple of things that didn't quite seem credible but I did find myself drawn into the story. The whole story takes place over a four day period in November 1924 as the cruise liner Endeavour approaches New York from Southampton with two thousand passengers and crew on board. When an elderly man is found dead at the bottom of a staircase, the ship’s captain assumes – and hopes – that it’s an accident. However, James Temple, a Scotland Yard inspector, happens to be one of the passengers on the voyage and, after examining the body, he is convinced that the old man has been murdered. The captain gives Temple permission to investigate the crime, but only if he agrees to be accompanied by one of the ship’s officers, Timothy Birch. Of course, the inevitable happens, and one of the guests ends up dead, and it seems impossible for anyone to have left the hotel. So the murderer is among them, and it’s left to the guests, along with local PC Natalie Fay, to get to the bottom of the group’s hidden secrets and possible motives, and uncover the killer.H δανέζα συγγραφέας καταπιάνεται με μια μακάβρια ιστορία και τη συνθέτει με προσοχή, λεπτομέρεια και διακριτικότητα. 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. It’s no spoiler to say an unexpected death occurs at the beginning of the story. An elderly man is found at the foot of a flight of steps. One of the ship’s officers, Timothy Birch, is tasked with dealing with what seems to be a tragic accident but when a Scotland Yard policeman, James Temple, who is also on board, takes an interest it appears that there might be a more sinister reason for the death.

Fatal Crossing has been translated from Danish, and while the translation was smooth enough, I did bristle at the overuse of the word chubby to describe several female characters in the book. Set in 1924 over a week long crossing from Southampton to New York, Tim Birch, the Ship’s Officer, finds himself assisting a Scotland Yard Detective in investigating the death of an elderly man on board. It’s generally believed to be an accident, but the detective thinks otherwise. They have four days to complete their investigations. There is certainly plenty to like about "The Murder Game" and the influence of those aforementioned authors is plainly evident. There is a nice prologue to set the scene and introduce the key protagonists in true "Golden Age" mystery fashion. The setting, too, is very Christie-esque and I liked the way the author made use of a 1920s themed murder mystery game to create a mystery within a mystery. Not only did this allow homage to be paid to that classic era, but it also reminded me of the technique employed by Anthony Horowitz in his "Magpie Murders" and "Moonflower Murders" books. It won't escape fans of Horowitz that there is something of a "Midsomer Murders" feel to this story too.I was first drawn to this book because of the beautiful cover, it’s very in keeping with the story. Nora Sand is a Danish journalist living in London writing articles for a Danish weekly paper. In an antique shop, she buys an old suitcase containing photos related to an old case in Denmark, where more than twenty years ago, two young girls from a youth home disappeared without a trace on their way to England. Sand travels to Copenhagen and tries to find a trail. She encounters many inconsistencies. She can convince her editor that behind these photos is certainly an exciting story for their newspaper.