Jude Grove
A series in six books
The Gilded Wren Mysteries
Bellamy Leisure Group bought a tired hull at auction, painted over thirty years of history, and announced a boutique luxury line. Somebody has to stand at the top of the gangway and say it is lovely.
The ship
She has had three names and none of them were hers
She was a North Sea ferry from 1994, then a Gulf casino boat with the corridors renumbered and the wiring left where it was, then eight years at anchor doing nothing at all. Now she is the Gilded Wren, and there are six hundred and twelve people aboard who paid for a palace.
Margaret "Peggy" Nunn is Director of Guest Delight, which means she is paid to make the difference between the brochure and the ship somebody else's problem. She is very good at it. She is loyal to the crew and not to the company, and that is the whole of her character.
Then a clerical error in the registry of the Republic of Kastrovia — landlocked, and running a shipping register since 1957 — enters her in the crew manifest as Purser. Under Article 9 of the Kastrovian Merchant Shipping Act, the entry, and not the appointment, constitutes the office.
Nobody appointed her anything. Somebody typed her name in a box.
It gives her charge of money, effects, deaths, and any argument between passengers worth less than five hundred ducats. Nobody, including her, can find out what a ducat is.
The books
Six books, one ship, less of her every time
Each one is a complete mystery and re-introduces the ship from scratch, so you can start anywhere. The ship gets smaller every book, and that is not an accident.
- 1 Murder Is Not Included A travel writer dies in a spa that does not exist. Everything works badly. Out now
- 2 A Passenger Short Deck 11 is closed for enhancement. A passenger vanishes and there is no body. Coming
- 3 Formal Night, Fatal Morning The theatre seats have been sold to a cinema in Panama. Somebody engineers a blackout. Coming
- 4 Some Restrictions Apply Half the vessel is behind painted plywood, and then she drifts for three days. Coming
- 5 Sea View, Partially Obstructed Operating out of three decks. A death that reads as an accident. Coming
- 6 The last one What is left of her, and the man who signed her off as finished. Coming
Book one · out now
Murder Is Not Included
On the third night of the maiden voyage, a travel journalist is found dead in the spa that doesn't exist. Head office will not permit anyone to contact the authorities before Miami. The Captain would rather not. And Article 9 has made Peggy the only person aboard who can convene an inquiry, seal a room, and name the person responsible.
She has four days, no forensics, and a door log that says she did it.