This was a brilliant book. Mysterious, clever, quirky and one I enjoyed all the way through. That is, until about the final 50 pages or so. Then it dropped a whole star in my rating. 

The writing style flowed effortlessly and made it invitingly easy to read. I found myself going from chapter to chapter in no time, with plenty of revelations to keep a suitable pace. 

I love the whole closed door, whodunit trope that this book explores. The main action taking place on a cruise ship in 1936 made for a great setting in both time and place. 

The stereotypical character types were fun to delve into and I liked discovering who I was going to love and who I'd love to hate. 

The murder mystery itself remained light hearted and fun which kept in fitting with the genre style. However, there were also some complex themes explored to do with classism and casual racism amongst other things, and these certainly provided an extra depth of content. 

The balance of chapters were well proportioned with both the present day goings on aboard the ship, and the on-land past events that led up to the voyage.

But then... the ending. The final revelations felt weak, unrealistic and underwhelming. The general conclusion was drab at best and it was just a frustratingly disappointing finish to an otherwise excellent novel.