Murder on "B" Deck

by Vincent Starrett, Otto Penzler (Introduction)

Overview

A 1920s cruise ship is destined for destruction in this cozy mystery by the author of The Great Hotel Murder.

For the passengers aboard the Latakia, the transatlantic journey from New York to Cherbourg promises weeks of rest and relaxation, no matter what class of ticket they have. But after an Italian baroness is found strangled in her cabin, the situation on board becomes more tense. The main suspect soon goes overboard, creating more questions than answers: Did a guilty conscience spur a suicidal act, or was he a witness silenced by the true killer, still at large on the luxury liner. 

Enter former intelligence officer Walter Ghost, tapped by the ship’s captain to play detective and solve the murder. He’s joined by his friend Dunsten Mollock, a novelist whose experience with mystery stories gives him helpful insights into the case. With clues including an amateur film, a doll, and a card from Memphis, Tennessee, it seems the duo have plenty to work with. But will they be able to solve the crime before word of the murder makes it into the steamship’s rumor mill, surely sending any guilty persons even deeper into hiding?

Originally published in 1929 and out of print for nearly a century, Murder on “B” Deck is a puzzling-yet-humorous whodunnit set in the Golden Age of transatlantic travel.

Includes discussion guide questions for use in book clubs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613162781
Publisher:	Penzler Publishers
Publication date:	01/18/2022
Series:	An American Mystery Classic
Pages:	235
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Vincent Starrett (1886–1974) was a Chicago journalist who became one of the world’s foremost experts on Sherlock Holmes. A books columnist for the Chicago Tribune, he also wrote biographies of authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson and Ambrose Bierce, various books on books and book collecting, plus Sherlockian pastiches and numerous short stories and novels. A founding member of the Baker Street Irregulars, he is perhaps known best today for The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, an imaginative biography of the great detective.

Otto Penzler, the creator of American Mystery Classics, is also the founder of The Mysterious Press (1975); MysteriousPress.com (2011), an electronic-book publishing company; and New York City’s Mysterious Bookshop (1979). He has won a Raven, the Ellery Queen Award, two Edgars (for the Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, 1977, and The Lineup, 2010), and lifetime achievement awards from NoirCon and The Strand Magazine. He has edited more than 70 anthologies and written extensively about mystery fiction.

Editorial Reviews

"Starrett was a Holmes expert, and this first of three Walter Ghost novels, published in 1929, delivers a frothy and thoroughly entertaining spin on the theme of a big-brained amateur sleuth and his admiring sidekick. Ghost is more William Powell than Basil Rathbone, but that's hardly a bad thing, especially aboard a luxury liner. Another winner from the American Mystery Classics series."

Booklist

2021-11-13
Sherlock-ian Starrett’s first mystery, originally published in 1929, invites readers to return to those civilized days when murder was part of the package on trans-Atlantic cruises.

Mystery novelist Dunstan Mollock hasn’t even booked passage on the SS Latakia; he’s just come to see off his sister, Mavis, and her bridegroom, Todd Osborne. But when a last-minute search for a book puts him back aboard the ship after it’s cast off, he decides this might as well be the trip to Europe he’s never taken before. His pleasure is redoubled when he meets attractive whodunit fan Dhu Harrington and reconnects with his old school friend Walter Ghost, psychologist, explorer, and “the perfect amateur.” No sooner has Mollock settled into his accidental voyage than it’s upended by the death of Countess Lulu Fogartini, who’s been strangled in her stateroom and had her neck broken to boot. Since Capt. Porter knows of Ghost’s work with government intelligence, he asks him to lead the investigation, whose sole clue seems to be a pair of “luck dolls” of the sort the countess had been knitting ever since she was a girl in Cincinnati. Metafictional touches abound. Mollock treats his fellow passengers to a reading of his latest whodunit, which features Starrett sleuth Jimmie Lavender, and Ghost and Mollock puzzle over The House of Mystery, a film starring the countess and a man who may just be her killer.

The suspects are types and the big reveal’s a big letdown, but this urbane, facetious tale will score with nostalgia buffs.

Kirkus Reviews

★ 11/15/2021

First published in 1929, this cunning closed-circle whodunit from Starrett (1886–1974) opens in Manhattan, where mystery novelist Dunstan Mollock is seeing off his sister, Mavis, and her new husband, who are about to depart on their European honeymoon aboard the Latakia. After Mollock disembarks, he realizes that he forgot to give Mavis an advance copy of his latest book. He returns to do so, only to be stuck on the ship when he misses his last opportunity to get off. Making the best of the situation, Mollock flirts with passenger Dhu Harrington, who persuades him to start writing his next novel and to set it on a ship like the Latakia. Mollock starts dictating the first chapter to Miss Harrington in the presence of some others who have asked to listen in, including an old friend, former intelligence officer Walter Ghost. The recital’s interrupted by news that someone has been strangled in their cabin, and Ghost is tapped to investigate. Ghost probes the possible motives of his fellow passengers, including Miss Harrington, but another life’s claimed before he reaches the fairly clued solution. Starrett makes the most of the setting and populates it with an array of potential suspects. This definitely merits being labeled an American Mystery classic. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

12/03/2021

Novelist Dunstan Mollock is seeing his sister and her new husband off on the Latakia on the midnight sailing to Europe. He leaves the ship, then runs back on board to give his sister his latest manuscript. When the ship sails, Mollock is stuck on board. He's happy, though, and he meets an old school friend, Walter Ghost. When one of the passengers, the Countess Fogartini, is found murdered in her stateroom, the captain calls on Ghost because of his reputation as a troubleshooter. After a second passenger from the captain's table goes overboard, Ghost suspects it might be murder, not suicide. Ghost admits he's never attempted to solve a murder mystery, and he only has five days to catch a killer before the ship docks. With Mollock as his bumbling, lovesick sidekick, Ghost makes a few amateur mistakes before setting a trap for his suspect. VERDICT First written in 1929, as Starrett's (The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes) first attempt at mystery, the book introduces Ghost, an amateur sleuth, and his comic relief, Mollock. The first of three to feature Walter Ghost is cerebral rather than fast-paced, but fans of Golden Age mysteries will appreciate the reprint.—Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Library Journal