Akunin, Boris

New York. 2004. April 2004. Random House. 1st American Edition. Small Bump On Top Boards,Otherwise Very Good in Dustjacket. 1400060516. Translated from the Russian by Andrew Bromfield. 225 pages. hardcover. Jacket design: Two Associates. Jacket images: man in checked jacket ? Corbis; Hindu statuette ? David Cumrning, Eye Ubiquitous/Corbis . keywords: Literature Russia Mystery Translated. FROM THE PUBLISHER - Paris, 1878: Eccentric antiquarian Lord Littleby and his ten servants are found murdered in Littleby's mansion on the rue de Grenelle, and a priceless Indian shawl is missing. Police commissioner 'Papa' Gauche recovers only one piece of evidence from the crime scene: a golden key shaped like a whale. Gauche soon deduces that the key is in fact a ticket of passage for the Leviathan, a gigantic steamship soon to depart Southampton on its maiden voyage to Calcutta. The murderer must be among its passengers. In Cairo, the ship is boarded by a young Russian diplomat with a shock of white hair none other than Erast Fandorin, the celebrated detective of Boris Akunin's THE WINTER QUEEN. The sleuth joins forces with Gauche to determine which often unticketed passengers on the Leviathan is the rue de Grenelle killer. Tipping his hat to Agatha Christie, Akunin assembles a colorful cast of suspects including a secretive Japanese doctor, a professor who specializes in rare Indian artifacts, a pregnant Swiss woman, and an English aristocrat with an appetite for collecting Asian treasures all of whom are confined together until the crime is solved. As the Leviathan steams toward Calcutta, will Fandorin be able to out-investigate Gauche and discover who the killer is, even as the ship's passengers are murdered, one by one? Already an international sensation, Boris Akunin 's latest page-turner transports the reader back to the glamorous, dangerous past in a richly atmospheric tale of suspense on the high seas. inventory #34382 ISBN: 1400060516.