Originally published in 1929, a Golden Age classic murder mystery set on a cruise ship.

Everyone is a suspect.

When a beautiful countess is found strangled in her cabin aboard the luxury liner Latakia, scientist, explorer, and former intelligence officer Walter Ghost tries to find the killer. He has a taste for puzzles and a habit of getting into trouble, but now he’s trapped in a game he doesn’t know if he can win.

Anyone could be next.

Confined to the close quarters of ‘B’ deck, with a group of paranoid passengers, Walter must solve this one quickly – and find the killer before someone else gets scratched off the passenger list.

‘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.’ Publishers Weekly

‘Starrett was a Holmes expert, and this first of three Walter Ghost novels, published in 1929, delivers a thoroughly entertaining spin on the theme of a big-brained amateur sleuth and his admiring sidekick.’ Booklist

‘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.’ * Publishers Weekly *
‘Starrett was a Holmes expert, and this first of three Walter Ghost novels, published in 1929, delivers a thoroughly entertaining spin on the theme of a big-brained amateur sleuth and his admiring sidekick.’ * Booklist *

Vincent Starrett (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 (Introducer)
Otto Penzler owns The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City and founded the Mysterious Press and Otto Penzler Books. He has written and edited several books, including the Edgar Award-winning Encyclopaedia of Mystery and Detection, and is the series editor of the annual Best American Mystery Stories of the Year.