CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN, SUNDAY TIMES, DAILY MAIL, FINANCIAL TIMES, DAILY EXPRESS AND i PAPER
‘A superb historical mystery: inventive, twisty, addictive and utterly beguiling… A TRIUMPH’ Will Dean
‘If you read one book this year, make sure it’s this one’ Daily Mail
Three impossible crimes
Two unlikely detectives
One deadly voyage
It’s 1634 and Samuel Pipps, the world’s greatest detective, is being transported from the Dutch East Indies to Amsterdam, where he is set to face trial for a crime that no one dares speak of.
But no sooner is the ship out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. Strange symbols appear on the sails. A figure stalks the decks. Livestock are slaughtered. Passengers are plagued with ominous threats, promising them three unholy miracles. First: an impossible pursuit. Second: an impossible theft.
Then: an impossible murder.
With Pipps imprisoned in the depths of the ship, can his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes solve the mystery before the ship descends into anarchy?
A beguiling historical mystery from the award-winning author of the dazzling The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.
‘Wildly inventive, Turton’s tale defies definition as either historical fiction or crime novel, but provides all the pleasures of both genres and more. No novel this year was more fun to read’ Sunday Times
‘A glorious mash-up of William Golding and Arthur Conan Doyle’ Val McDermid
‘A locked room murder mystery… by way of Treasure Island’ Guardian
SELECTED FOR THE BBC TWO BOOK CLUB BETWEEN THE COVERS AND THE RADIO 2 JO WHILEY BOOK CLUB
SHORTLISTED FOR THE HWA GOLD CROWN
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSBORO BOOKS GLASS BELL AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER AWARD

Scenes and Apparitions
The Strawberry Thief
Diary of A Somebody
The Other Half of Augusta Hope
Breasts and Eggs
Fight Club
House Industries Graph Paper
The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories
Logical Family
Predators Illuminated 500 Piece Glow in the Dark Puzzle
Dear Mrs Bird
Unsheltered
The Porpoise
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Blood in the Water : A true story of small-town revenge
Clothes... and Other Things That Matter
The Return


