One Bear's Opinion -- Book Review

Murder on the Minnesota by Conrad Allen

For this third adventure, George Porter Dillman and Genevieve Masefield have moved from the Cunard Line to the Great Northern Steamship Line, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Despite the change in ships and oceans, the basic story is the same.

Series mystery novels do all tend to have similar basic plots, particularly murder mysteries. Going in I knew this was going to follow the basic formula of murder and investigation until the culprit is unveiled. Reading mystery series is more a visit with old friends and solving a puzzle along the way more than it is just to solve the puzzle. The formulaic nature of the novels can grate on some people, but it’s not really a problem for me.

Murder on the Minnesota was similar to the first two mysteries in the series, but it’s different as well. The personal relationship between George and Genevieve develops further, but there is more than that. In the first book, there were many lavish descriptions of the Lusitania. The second book brought some descriptions, but not as many, or the Mauretania. This episode had very few descriptions of the Minnesota. That may be explained because the ship was not only an ocean liner, but also a freighter, but still, I missed the descriptions of the ship. Having been on several modern-day cruise ships left me something of a deck plan junkie. I love pouring over deck plans and imagining the way the passengers move and flow along the ship. I would have really enjoyed having a page of deck plans for the classic ocean liners used in the series. Even if they were fictionalized, along with the passengers and stories. It would have also helped in this episode, because much of the action happened “around corners” and in cabins close to each other, but with easy access to escape passages. It would have been much nicer to have an idea of how everything fit together according to the author’s mental deck plan of the ship.

It was a fun adventure, full of disreputable, dislikable characters and innocent bystander victims. There were plenty of red herrings and false starts in the investigation, and though the solution was satisfying, the ending of the book felt a bit rushed and unfinished. It definitely set the read up for more adventures with George and Genevieve, but there was a bit of a disappointment in the hanging stories of a few of the innocent bystanders.

I am excited to get to re-reading the next episodes in the series, and the mysteries have stood up to the re-reads. I did not remember who was he murderer or that the initial investigation was headed down the wrong track. I remember the characters more than the story. And that is the way it should be with re-reads — enjoyable visits with old friends.

One Bear’s Opinion: Three Mai-Tais on the Lido Deck with breezes gently swaying the umbrella

Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver