Murder on the Minnesota

Murder on the Minnesota takes Conrad Allen's ocean-liner detectives George Porter Dillman and Genevieve Masefield onto a Pacific crossing in 1907, with a Japanese delegation, an American railroad heir, and the standard set of suspects with secrets. The crime, when it arrives, involves the heir and a piece of compromising correspondence.

Allen's strength is the texture of long sea voyages. The Pacific crossings on these turn-of-the-century ships had a different rhythm from the transatlantic runs, and Allen captures it: longer days, deeper boredom for the upper decks, more time for resentments to acquire weight. The investigation is competent. The Japanese delegation is treated with more nuance than I expected from a 2002 novel.

Three stars. Pleasant cozy reading. Best for fans of period detail rather than puzzle difficulty.