If you won't finish this, I'll do it myself.
A Fatal Crossing
by Tom Hindle
Genre: Mystery
About: Two thousand passengers are sailing to New York but not all with make it to the end of the trip. When a passenger is found dead and a rare piece of art stolen, sailor Tim Birch must work with detective John Temple to look into these mysterious circumstances. They have just four days to discover the truth, or risk letting a murderer go free.
The Good
This was very easy to read. The story moved along at a good pace and we were given plenty of mysteries to solve. Four days at over four hundred pages was surprisingly quick to get through. I really liked the setting on board the steam ship and how we came by information was well thought out and believable. The prologue was standout to me - in fact I do wish we'd been in that third-person POV for the entirety of the novel as it worked well to set up the tone.
The Bad
I didn't enjoy the constant interruptions in conversations or the lack of relationship building between Birch and Temple. Halfway through the novel they have exactly the same dynamic as the start. The back and forth between them became quickly repetitive, as was Birch's supposed naivety.
I also really wish Kate had been involved in the story. Birch's home life is stressed as being so important that I was expecting Kate to be onboard somehow for us to have a resolution there. It would have added some needed development to Birch's character if he'd had an emotional moment with his estranged wife towards the end.
The Somewhat Iffy
Our main character. He was a frustrating one to be inside the head of as he was set up to be somewhat slow-witted and often morally outraged character. His turn around at the end read as being there purely for a 'twist' moment rather than it actually making sense. The problem with it, to me, was that it invalidated a lot of Birch's internal thoughts. Such as every time Birch wondered about Temple's connection to the American family (he already knows about Temple being a witness in the family's trial). It also made Birch saving Temple's life a ridiculous moment - surely when he saw Doyle overpowering Temple, that's when he would make the decision to either let Temple die or realise he can't kill this man. Overall it just reads as too deceptive that a character who questions everything (over and over again) wouldn't have revealed tortured thoughts about whether he should kill Temple or not.
Overall
A good mystery with a somewhat unsatisfying ending. It strongly reminded me of The Devil and the Dark Water (Stuart Turton) and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Agatha Christie) though it lacked the spark that those novels both had to make it truly memorable.
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