Danger on the Atlantic

In Neubauer's lively third Jane Wunderly mystery (after 2021's Murder at Wedgefield Manor), Jane and her sometime investigative associate, Redvers Dibble, seek to uncover the identity of a German spy on a 1926 voyage from Southampton to New York aboard the Olympic, the Titanic's sister ship. Jane is soon embroiled in the case of the rich Vanessa FitzSimmons, who claims her new husband has disappeared. Though ship officials state that no such person is aboard and cast doubt on Vanessa's sanity, Jane suspects that Vanessa is being gaslighted, pursues inquiries with Vanessa's erratic maid, and is distressed when Vanessa is drugged and someone is murdered. Jane and Redvers hunt for a code book, contend with obstructive crew members, dance despite Jane's two left feet, and confront that most fearsome challenge: the passenger who never stops talking. As Jane and Redvers attempt to chart the direction of their personal and professional partnership, readers will find much to enjoy. The winning team of the smart, compassionate Jane and the resourceful Redvers is guaranteed to please series fans and draw in some new ones. Agent: Ann Collette, Rees Literary. (Apr.)

The search for a German spy aboard the RMS Olympic is complicated by all the subplots you'd expect from the prewar romantic intrigue subgenre. Word is that the agent passing on intelligence to the Third Reich is either restaurant manager Heinz Naumann, ship bandleader Keith Brubacher, or Edwin Banks, who runs the photography office aboard the Olympic. But none of them behaves half as suspiciously as Miles Van de Meter, who swept minor heiress Vanessa FitzSimmons off her feet in Monte Carlo, married her within two weeks, and then disappeared shortly after boarding for their honeymoon voyage, followed soon after by his luggage. Vanessa is so voluble in pestering everyone about her missing bridegroom that Jane Wunderly and Redvers Dibble, the not-quite-a-couple who've booked passage as Mr. and Mrs. Wunderly so that they can identify the agent before he does any more damage, are hard-pressed to keep their eye on the spy. Redvers, a duly accredited operative of Her Majesty's Government, has his methods, which seem mainly limited to getting his confederate, steward Francis Dobbins, to help him search all the first-class passengers' staterooms over and over looking for evidence, but Jane, an amateur who seems hopelessly out past her depth, can do little but flirt with Heinz--the other two suspects are impervious to her advances--and keep an eagle eye out for Eloise Baumann, whose aggressively endless chatter makes Vanessa seem quiet. The mixture is eventually seasoned with murder, but both felonies and complications take much longer to arrive than romance. As the heroine sagely summarizes her work: "The only thing I knew for certain was that nearly everyone was lying." Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.