Buy this book
Books N Bytes participates in affiliate programs including Amazon Associates and Bookshop.org. We may earn a commission when you purchase through our links at no extra cost to you.
The Sunken Sailor is the Elizabeth Foxwell-edited 2004 round-robin collaborative mystery novel, with thirteen contributing authors each writing one chapter of a single ongoing mystery that begins on a chartered yacht in the Caribbean and unspools into multiple revelations across the next twelve chapters. The contributors include Pamela Beason, Catherine Aird, Carrie Bebris, Margaret Coel, Kris Neri, Mary Reed, Eric Mayer, Marcia Talley, and others.
Foxwell's editorial work in The Sunken Sailor is the actual achievement. Round-robin novels rarely cohere across multiple writers, and the structural commitment Foxwell secured from the contributors keeps the plot machinery running through twelve chapter shifts. The Catherine Aird and Margaret Coel chapters are the strongest individual pieces. Fans of the British Detection Club's collaborative-novel tradition (The Floating Admiral, Ask a Policeman) will recognize the careful round-robin form.
The book is a curio rather than a major entry in any of the contributors' careers. The Caribbean atmosphere is well-handled.
Three stars. A useful round-robin curio. Recommended to readers interested in the collaborative-novel form. The Sunken Sailor Elizabeth Foxwell anthology works best for fans of the contributors who want a sampler of their voices in a single project.
Related reads
If you liked The Sunken Sailor
Ed McBain / Evan Hunter : A Literary Companion
by Elizabeth Foxwell
Ed McBain Evan Hunter A Literary Companion by Erin E. MacDonald, with Elizabeth Foxwell. A reference work on the 87th Precinct and Blackboard Jungle author. Sharp, comprehensive.
The Robert B. Parker Companion
by Elizabeth Foxwell
The Robert B. Parker Companion by Elizabeth Foxwell review. A 2005 reference book on the Spenser novelist. Sharp critical-and-biographical assembly of the long career.
The Lincoln Lawyer
by Michael Connelly
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly 2005 review. Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles defense attorney who works out of the back of a Lincoln Town Car, takes a case that pulls him into something larger. The novel that launched a series and a film franchise.
Big Little Lies
by Liane Moriarty
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty 2014 review. Three mothers at an Australian elementary school converge on a kindergarten Trivia Night where someone will die. The contemporary domestic-suspense novel that defined the late-2010s book-club shelf.
In the Woods
by Tana French
In the Woods by Tana French 2007 review. Dublin Murder Squad detective Rob Ryan is assigned to a child murder in the same woods where his two best friends disappeared twenty years earlier. The Edgar winner that launched the strongest contemporary literary-crime series.
Tell No One
by Harlan Coben
Tell No One by Harlan Coben 2001 review. A pediatrician receives an email containing a video clip of his murdered wife, eight years after her death. The single best Coben standalone and the one that defined the contemporary domestic-thriller register.
More by this author