Doomed Voyage by Bill Russell

Doomed Voyage by Bill Russell
Publisher: Class Act Books
Genre: Historical, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Full Length (324 Pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Cyclamen

Adrift on the vast Pacific in a small boat with only a dim prospect of rescue, private investigator Toby Grant questions his wisdom in taking on such a whacky assignment. It sounded so easy coming from his natty little client. All he had to do was transport a bunch of supposedly phony diamonds across the ocean to Hong Kong as a decoy for the real shipment. In his mind, it was a chance for a free cruise and there was even a buck to be made. Who cared about the danger? Even Pam, his new wife cottoned to the idea. Turned out she was as big a thrill seeker as he. Now they are on an endless ocean in a leaking lifeboat, miles off the normal sea-lanes. Can things possibly get any worse?

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Doomed Voyage is an action-packed story set in the years immediately following World War II. As the novel’s blub says, they end up trying to survive in a leaking lifeboat miles from the regular shipping lanes, but before they reach that desperate point, lots of things have happened. The ship has a crew of twenty and there are sixteen other passengers whom Toby and Pam have to investigate. I found that there were a lot of characters to keep straight, but the author used the dinner table assignments to introduce characters in smaller groups. Toby and Pam have dinner with a different pair each night, which allows the reader to get to know the supporting characters more slowly.

I really liked Toby and Pam and they seemed very real. The other passengers come from a cross-section of personality types and they are well-drawn. There are some who are easy to like and others who are asking to be kicked. The tension builds relentlessly as the ship leaves San Francisco and heads towards Hawaii.

The setting was well constructed. The era of the late forties was nicely captured and the atmosphere aboard the freighter seemed very realistic. The chief villain was relatively easy to spot, but many of the sub-plots were intricate and fascinating. The interaction between various characters was handled very deftly and I truly felt as if I was right there with Toby and Pam as the sharks, human and non-human, circled.

If you are looking for an historical mystery with lots of interesting characters and a complex plot, this might just be what you are looking for.