4 stars: Very good

From the back cover: January 1940. The early days of the war. The liner 'Edwardic' sets sail from New York to a "British port" ,its name withheld for security, on the other side of the submarine infested Atlantic. Formerly a luxury ship, the Edwardic has been converted into a munitions carrier. Because of the inherent danger with such cargo, the vessel -although fully staffed - only carries nine passengers. One passenger is a victim. A second is a murderer whose bloody fingerprints are found at the scene of the crime. The solution should be simple, opines a traveling criminologist. Fingerprint everyone on board and see whose prints match those in the blood stained cabin. Not so simple. Each person's prints are taken, none matches those found. Nine passengers and death makes ten! Fortunately, the ninth passenger is none other than Sir Henry Merrivale.

For this 1940 novel, author John Dickson Carr drew on this own experiences crossing the Atlantic at the outset of World War II.

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I read this book while I was in the middle of a major remodel, holed up in my bedroom with a cold. It was perfect! It kept me engaged, finished it in about a day and a half. SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER While I figured it was a case of someone impersonating someone else, I did not guess the details. As usual, John Dickson Carr pulled it off. This one is considered to be one of his best, for good reason. Keeping for PC. ( )

The mystery itself is not especially notable, but the setting is interesting -- a British liner crossing the Atlantic with a load of explosives and 9 passengers in 1940, before the US entered the war. The preface says it is based on the author's experience making a similar crossing (without the explosives, or the murder). ( )

The mystery was OK, but what I particularly appreciated about this book was the vivid setting: the blacked-out ship loaded with munitions, traveling across the vast sea with danger looming.