"The technical side of things, how to build a watertight wooden ship, how to make rope and the almost sensual way to carve a figurehead, the most important part of a sailing vessel, is spot on"
AMAZON UK
AMAZON UK
Mystery
1800s
Scotland
There’s a body on the beach, and it looks like they drowned. This is
not unusual in Aberdeen in the 1840s and initially, it seemed that it was just
another accident. The local law will round up the usual suspects and life will
continue.
The deceased, Jimmie Crombie, was a sharp businessman; disliked by
everyone, from his wife Jessie to William Anderson, for whom he was building a
new ship. He owed everyone money, including John Grant, the man carving the
figurehead for Anderson’s ship. John is drawn into investigating when he sees
suspicious marks on the body which make it look like more than a drunken accident.
And he has his own reason to find out, an unsolved crime that he suffered from
still haunts him.
The problem he has is: where to start? It seems that everyone has a
motive and he must be careful, the people he works with and the shipyard can be
dangerous places; accuse the wrong man and he could end up in the same
situation. If that wasn’t enough, the figurehead he is carving has a deception
of its own, the widower John, develops what could become more than a friendship
with Anderson’s daughter, Helen. If society would ever allow such a thing.
Bill Kirton has written more than an amateur detective story set in the
past, he has captured the very essence of a city in flux, its ever-changing
cast brought in and out with the tide. The relationship between the classes and
their lives is shown in absorbing detail as John investigates. You can see the
teeming streets, the dark alleys and bars. The smell of the fish-market on the
breeze. The drunkenness of Saturday night and its aftermath. You feel the gulf
between Anderson in his mansion and Jessie, Jimmie Crombie’s widow, in her hovel.
The growing friendship across class between John and Helen is tenderly drawn
and adds another layer to the story.
The solving of the crime is well paced, the suspicion shifting from one
person to another as more is discovered about the lives of the characters,
revealing just how little John knows of the people he spends his life with.
There is no final dramatic exposition, none is needed. Instead we have a
logical conclusion, perfectly described.
And all this is intertwined with the story of building a ship and
carving its figurehead. The technical side of things, how to build a watertight
wooden ship, how to make rope and the almost sensual way to carve a figurehead,
the most important part of a sailing vessel, is spot on. This realism helps to
construct the world of the tale.
When I had finished, I wanted to know what happens to the characters
next; to me this is the mark of a master story-teller.
© Richard Dee
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Thanks very much for your kind remarks, Richard, and to you, Helen, for posting them.
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