Singing in the Shrouds

It’s foul play on a freighter: “Enthralling . . .keeps the reader on tenterhooks until the dramatic finale.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
The good ship Cape Farewell is steaming out to sea, with a passenger-list and crew fairly littered with the shifty, the twitchy, the peculiar, and the up-to-no-good. Arguably the up-to-no-goodest is a strangler with a romantic streak: He likes to leave his ladies with a flower and a charming little song. The latest of the ladies is currently lying on a fogbound London dock, mute witness to the fact that Inspector Alleyn—long on the strangler’s trail—has so far failed to catch his man. A wintertime sailing on a low-rent cargo ship is not Alleyn’s idea of a terrific time, but he nevertheless boards the Cape at Portsmouth, determined that no one else is going to get strangled on his watch . . ..
“This is the Classic Puzzle at its purest . . .embellished by literate dialogue and attractive characterization.” —The New York Times