Detective’s Guide to Ocean Travel
In 1927 London, young Pepper Stark wants to connect with her remote sea-captain father in his domain, the RMS Aquitania, aboard which her mother died in an accident when Pepper was a baby. Her father is eventually persuaded to take her aboard. Pepper is thrilled by the opulence of the ship and the prospect of seeing her late mother’s New York City. The notable human and animal passengers include American stage star Perdita West with a pet leopard and the huge Saffron Diamond, a gift from her fiancé. Pepper encounters and befriends an older boy with a blind father and unusual skills, a boy who sneaks up from Second Class eager to meet the pastry chef, and an Irish girl from Third Class with a golden voice hoping to meet Perdita West in the ship’s Night of Stars.
A fancy-dress costume parade where Perdita’s leopard shows up wearing the Saffron Diamond ends with almost everyone in the pool and the diamond disappearing. Everyone is a suspect, and Captain Stark comes under fire for the theft on his watch. With Pepper’s governess constantly seasick and medicated, Pepper decides to investigate and recover the diamond, a search that puts her, her friends, and the ship in peril.
Pepper’s early-teen point of view rings true as she navigates this strange world, and the plot is well paced. The friends are loyal and passionate; they argue and come together. There are numerous red herrings and apparent dead ends in the mystery before them; its solution will challenge adults as well. The design is lovely, befitting the novel’s opulent and well-rendered setting in the golden age of ocean liners. This is the kind of book for middle-grade readers that made this reviewer fall in love with reading.
