In A Tempest at Sea, a twisty and turbulent installment of Sherry Thomas’ perennially entertaining Lady Sherlock thriller collection, a glamorous Christie-esque forged sails into hazard on the open seas.
A Tempest at Sea is the seventh journey of Charlotte Holmes, a superb detective who solves mysteries whereas pretending to be the assistant of her brother, Sherlock, who in Thomas’ collection doesn’t exist and is merely the entrance for Charlotte’s exploits. The sleuth has lately faked her loss of life with a purpose to conceal from Moriarty, a felony mastermind whom Charlotte has tangled with in prior books. But now British spymaster Lord Remington has provided her an opportunity to return to her former life together with his safety if she will discover a lacking file. The paperwork are quickly to depart the nation on the RMS Provence, protected by Moriarty’s minions. Charlotte disguises herself as a rich dowager and boards the ship, however then issues get much more difficult. Two days into the voyage, one of essentially the most notable passengers, a risky self-made millionaire with a shady previous, is shot useless. Charlotte and her beau, Lord Ingram, should get to the underside of what occurred, along with discovering the file and defending Charlotte’s secrets and techniques.
Thomas’ confidence and ease at the helm of the collection is apparent, and she or he’s clearly having enjoyable taking part in with the tropes and inventory characters of the historic thriller subgenre. A Tempest at Sea recollects treasured Agatha Christie novels like Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express, which function a divergent group of personalities assembled for a luxurious voyage that quickly turns lethal. The Provence is a state-of-the-art, first-class-only steamer vessel spiriting previous cash and new to a bunch of disparate locations, and the thriller makes essentially the most of this setting. It’s the final word locked-door location—days from land, in worldwide waters—and in contrast to the equally common nation home setting, there’s no escape, no reprieve and few hiding locations.
There are rumblings of bother among the many passengers even earlier than their departure, with entitled, resentful previous cash bumping up in opposition to the nouveau riche (each actually and figuratively). Everyone appears to harbor a secret agenda, and Thomas excels at creating these characters, particularly their petty biases. Charlotte’s mom exhibits up and proceeds to behave out in opposition to these of lesser station, and an aristocratic passenger loudly embarasses the sister of the eventual homicide sufferer. Even in these minor skirmishes, the hazard is palpable.
Though it’s not all clean crusing—there are occasional gaps in logic, even when the appeal of the characters, settings and twists outweighs them—it’s a pleasure to see the well-oiled Holmes group spring into motion and to look at Ingram and Charlotte’s romantic relationship thrive.
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