W 1878 roku Paryżem wstrząsnęła sensacyjna wiadomość o zbrodni stulecia, dokonanej w posiadłości kolekcjonera indyjskich antyków. Aby ukraść cenną ...
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Jan 28, 2008
Stanka
rated it: 
I am a slow, really slow, reader but this book took me a day and a half. For someone faster, it may be a matter of hours. I suppose that's all recommending you need, but here is some more. Akunin -- recommended to me as "the best Russian novelist today" (except that he's Georgian) -- writes a really hilarious parody of Agatha Christie-type murder mysteries, notably a novel like "Murder on the Orient Express." What he "takes" from Christie is a confined luxurious set
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Apr 20, 2010
Joyce
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3rd in the Erast Fandorin series.[return][return]This is a lightweight series that I hope Akunin is having as much fun writing as he appears to be doing. This installment, according to the cover blurbs, is a takeoff on Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. Certainly, it s very different in style from the first two. Told from the points of view of different passengers of the mammoth luxury liner Leviathan, on her maiden cruise in 1878, the plot involves a horrendous murder of 12 people in Paris befor
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Apr 27, 2010
Debbie
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This is a translation of Russian writer, Boris Akunin. The story is set in 1878, first in Paris, and then on the luxury steamship, The Leviathan. In Paris, ten people are discovered murdered-with nine sitting at a table, and the master of the house, upstairs, clubbed to death. The French police beleive the criminal will be on The Leviathan, bound for Bombay. The story progresses with various first-class occupants relaying the events and weaving stories into the narrative. The characters are
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Oct 21, 2010
russell
rated it:
Another refugee from Woking's many second hand book shops, Murder on the Leviathan is a much more rounded read than The Winter Queen.
Possibly because it's set on a pleasure cruise and he's ostensibly not the main character, Fandorin seems more relaxed, or at least as relaxed as you can be as a suspect in a multiple murder investigation. Also, the mix of nationalities on board and the claustrophobic Windsor Suite gives Akunin license to let his sense of humour off the leash.
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Possibly because it's set on a pleasure cruise and he's ostensibly not the main character, Fandorin seems more relaxed, or at least as relaxed as you can be as a suspect in a multiple murder investigation. Also, the mix of nationalities on board and the claustrophobic Windsor Suite gives Akunin license to let his sense of humour off the leash.
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Feb 26, 2011
Craig
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In search of the perpetrator of a multiple murder in Paris, a French detective pursues his quarry aboard the steamer Leviathan which is traveling to India in about 1878. Erast Fandorin, a young Russian diplomat/detective on his way to Japan meets the ship along the way. The mystery is fine though not very original. Fandorin has the advantage of the frenchman at every step. He's a bit of a cross between Holmes and Poirot.
Parts of the story are related by several of the eclectic, i More...
Parts of the story are related by several of the eclectic, i More...
Oct 24, 2010
Froglily
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Russian detective Erast Fandorin is one suspect among several confined on shipboard while a French police commissioner investigates the murder of the eccentric Lord Littleby.
A clue dropped at the site of a horrific murder leads Paris police commissioner “Papa” Gauche to sail on the maiden voyage of the steamship Leviathan. Ten of the passengers are suspects, including the Russian detective Erast Fandorin. Each passenger has his or her own story to tell, secrets to protect, and view o More...
A clue dropped at the site of a horrific murder leads Paris police commissioner “Papa” Gauche to sail on the maiden voyage of the steamship Leviathan. Ten of the passengers are suspects, including the Russian detective Erast Fandorin. Each passenger has his or her own story to tell, secrets to protect, and view o More...
Jul 06, 2010
Mark
rated it:
Well, I still don't have my chronology straight, in that this appears to be the third Fandorin mystery and not the second, but so be it.
In this one, Fandorin boards a huge sail-and-steam liner near the Suez Canal for a trip to India and on to Japan, and finds himself, of course, embroiled in solving a murder mystery.
This book manages to cleverly reference parlor murder mysteries and Inspector LeStrade in one fell swoop, since a mass murder in Paris is being investigated o More...
In this one, Fandorin boards a huge sail-and-steam liner near the Suez Canal for a trip to India and on to Japan, and finds himself, of course, embroiled in solving a murder mystery.
This book manages to cleverly reference parlor murder mysteries and Inspector LeStrade in one fell swoop, since a mass murder in Paris is being investigated o More...
Jan 23, 2012
Margo
rated it:
Book #3, in which our humble hero, Erast Fandorin, now a diplomat on his way to Japan, solves a particularly brutal set of murders and catches a notorious criminal. Ten people are murdered in a robbery-gone-wrong in Paris, where the loot is senselessly thrown into the Seine and one of the victims is left holding a brooch that links the murderer to the maiden voyage of the luxury liner, Leviathan. Thus begins this mystery, a very entertaining homage to Agatha Christie. Beginning with the secre
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Feb 02, 2011
Richard
rated it:
Diverting entry in an ongoing series. Erast Fandorin is a charming, nineteenth-century Russian James Bond-if-he-was-fathered-by-Nero-Wolfe sleuth trapped on board a huge new luxury liner with a greedy, murderous genius who is after the world's greatest hoard of gemstones.
People die right and left as the sleuth, ineptly assisted by seemingly every passenger assigned to eat in his dining room, closes in on the inevitable identification of the killer/fortune hunter. Much entertaining di More...
People die right and left as the sleuth, ineptly assisted by seemingly every passenger assigned to eat in his dining room, closes in on the inevitable identification of the killer/fortune hunter. Much entertaining di More...
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Feb 14, 2010
Marfita
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Oh, Fandolin is getting much better. This time he's traveling on the maiden voyage of the Leviathan after a heinous crime was committed in Paris. His fellow voyagers are from various places (mostly England and France and one from Japan) and among them may be a notorious criminal. Heck, they're all behaving suspiciously.
Akunin artfully changes point of view either by "camera angle" or exerpts from diaries and letters so that Fangolin is observed and described by each person and More...
Akunin artfully changes point of view either by "camera angle" or exerpts from diaries and letters so that Fangolin is observed and described by each person and More...
Nov 13, 2011
Arthur
rated it:
Czarist-era Policeman Erast Fandorin finds himself on a giant ship headed to India when he's drawn into solving the murder of nine people in Paris and figuring out what happened to a fabulous Indian treasure.
Despite a string of dead bodies, Akunin's character, exposition and plot, are a bit of a snooze. While the characters are pretty fully drawn with all their vulnerabilities, there's no inner life in the inspector, no moving through space, no useful clues. Fandorin just reveals the a More...
Despite a string of dead bodies, Akunin's character, exposition and plot, are a bit of a snooze. While the characters are pretty fully drawn with all their vulnerabilities, there's no inner life in the inspector, no moving through space, no useful clues. Fandorin just reveals the a More...
Mar 24, 2011
Paul
rated it:
Russell gave me this to read (after much whining on my part) and I'm very grateful that he did - maybe not eternally but certainly for the near future. Although it's not the first in the series it doesn't matter if you read it first, and as Russell points out in his review, having the hero of the novel assume an almost subsidiary role to the action gives the author a greater freedom that he uses well in drawing up the other characters. It is a take on a Christie-style set up - a disparate group
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Sep 10, 2009
Michelle
rated it:
I enjoyed listening to this audio book. It's a good murder mystery, without getting too graphic. I was able to figure some things out before the end, but even then there were some surprise twists. Pretty high body count! But, it greatly reminded me of the classic Agatha Christie books. I liked all the different nationalities represented by the characters. I didn't give it 4 stars because I was a little frustrated with the ending, but I guess it kind of helps set up for a sequel if the autho
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Apr 13, 2010
okyrhoe
rated it:
It doesn't take many pages into "Leviathan" to understand this is a parody of Agatha Christie's mystery novels.
It's an entertaining read, and there are some creative touches with the narrative. Akunin experiments by having each chapter in the voice of different characters, thereby emphasizing the traits of each individual's nationality (eg., one must read the Japanese man's segments by tilting the book 90 degrees, the Engishman is in epistolary form, etc.).
However I am no More...
It's an entertaining read, and there are some creative touches with the narrative. Akunin experiments by having each chapter in the voice of different characters, thereby emphasizing the traits of each individual's nationality (eg., one must read the Japanese man's segments by tilting the book 90 degrees, the Engishman is in epistolary form, etc.).
However I am no More...
Jul 24, 2011
Jill
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To put it simply, I loved this book. It was written in the style used in the Golden Age of Mystery and surprisingly is a translation from the Russian. This is one of a series and the first that I have read......needless to say, I will be reading more by this author.
The luxury liner, Leviathan, is the setting for mystery, although the first chapter sets the stage for all that follows.....a mass murder in Paris and the theft of a priceless artifact. A nosy and crude French policeman, Commiss More...
The luxury liner, Leviathan, is the setting for mystery, although the first chapter sets the stage for all that follows.....a mass murder in Paris and the theft of a priceless artifact. A nosy and crude French policeman, Commiss More...
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Feb 25, 2008
Nancy
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1878: At the Paris home of Lord Littleby, a known collector of Indian (meaning from India) artifacts & treasures, a gruesome crime has been committed. Seated together around a table, 9 servants were found dead and upstairs, Lord Littleby himself was bludgeoned to death with a heavy object. Missing from his collection was a statue of the god Shiva, and a shawl. The Inspector of the French police working the case, a M. Gauche, finds one and only one piece of evidence: a golden badge in the shape o
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Nov 23, 2009
Kristen
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The heinous murder of ten people on the Rue de Grenelle sends the Paris police commissioner on a chase for the cold-hearted killer. He is joined by the intrepid detective Erast Fandorin on the Leviathan, a luxury cruise liner sailing for Calcutta. Suspects abound on board, but it is Fandorin and his knack at detection that utimately reveals each plot twist and finally the murderer. A mixture of Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes, Erast Fandorin is a new breed of detective with his good looks, p
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Aug 11, 2010
James
rated it:
The best book in a series I really like! Different chapters have different fonts depending on from whose perspective that part of the story is being told. Some might think this is a gimmic, but I found it really effective. The previous, or next novel in the series (depending on whether you are in the UK or US!), 'Turkish Gambit', is set on a major, war-threatening scale whereas this is a straight forward 'issolated-location-so-the-killer-must-be-one-of-us' books. And much better for it.
Sep 29, 2011
John
rated it:
Funny and suspenseful with plenty of twists. Gustave Gauche starts the proceeding well and is a wonderful character. I much preferred this tale to The Winter Queen. Publishers Weekly said of this, “…the ruthless yet poignant arch villain makes up for a cast of mostly cardboard characters.” An unfair and erroneous summation, as the characters are all fleshed out by allowing each one a first person narrative. A clever, fun read in the style of Agatha Christie.
May 26, 2010
Rachel
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This was a mystery book with a slight variation on the genre: chapters varied in their authors. Akunin succeeded in differentiating the voices, but the tone didn't ring true to me. Characters of other nationalities seemed caricatured, while the one Russian stood out as the hero (obviously appealing to his original audience). I didn't find myself enthralled by the mystery either. At least now I can tell Grandma I gave it a shot.
Feb 27, 2009
Anna
rated it:
Third book after The Winter Queen and The Turkish Gambit from Erast Fandorin series. Boris Akunin showed 19th century Russia and Europe. It's 1878. Paris is shaken by unusual and cruel crime of the century - unknown murderer killed collectioner of antics from India, nine of his servants (seven servants and two kids of servants) and stole a golden statuette of Shiva along with old Indian shawl. the case is in hands of French detective Gauche. Trace leads to exclusive ship Leviathan going to Calcu
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Jan 08, 2011
Isabella
rated it:
Murder on the Leviathan. Well it's the second book with the same Portuguese title I read. There's a last one as I know for the philosopher Thomas Hobbes. This last one I most read :)
Crime and investigations are my adorable subject.And no doubt I liked this book. Also it remembers Agatha Christie (the 10 little Niggers) didn't read it yet but of course I saw a lot of movies about it when I was a teen.
Crime and investigations are my adorable subject.And no doubt I liked this book. Also it remembers Agatha Christie (the 10 little Niggers) didn't read it yet but of course I saw a lot of movies about it when I was a teen.
Jun 04, 2010
Emily
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I enjoyed this more than the first in the series...probably I'd give it a 3+ if that was an option. It was a more traditional murder mystery, and I found the characters more humorous than in the first book. I'd agree with Rachel that the narrative did not convincingly portray the different voices of the characters, but the humor each character brought to the story overrode that for me.
Nov 27, 2011
ashok
rated it:
Akunin is in many ways the modern successor to Agatha Christie. In many ways he is better. The storylines are tighter and centered around footnotes of history, the preceding book to Leviathan is "Turkish Gambit" which has some interesting commentary on the crimean war and on the war on the ottomans by the russians.
Jan 17, 2012
Nathan
rated it:
Russian detective gets caught up in what appears to be a classic Christie-style murder mystery. Akunin has a lot of fun playing with the conventions here, as his normal protagonist is merely a bystander watching the action for the first 2/3 of the book. Very enjoyable. RAted PG for some violence. 3.5/5
Aug 14, 2009
F.R.
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Apparently each of Boris Akunin’s ‘Erast Fandorin’ books examines a different thriller/crime archetype. This is his go at Christie. The result is an undemanding read, but the lack of any fresh insight or wit in considering Dame Agatha’s oeuvre means that it hardly quickens the blood.
May 27, 2008
Elizabeth
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An interesting read which I would describe as a relaxing and enjoyable crime novel. The story is very reminiscent of an Agatha Christie and the setting on a boat means that at several moments it almost seems like a pastiche. It is well plotted and the characters all take it in turns to share their thoughts with the reader. This style does allow the author to develop his characters and there are some amusing moments. The characters were all "types" which was occasionally a little predic
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Jan 18, 2009
Bibliophile
rated it:
The Fandorin mysteries keep improving. The third one (though the English language translation was published second) is a version of the "locked room" mystery combined with a very Sherlock-Holmes-like tale of hidden treasure (sort of a Russian version of "The Sign of Four"), and Akunin uses multiple unreliable narrators to maintain the mystery. A quick and charming read!
Aug 27, 2009
Judy
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This is the second Boris Akunin book I've read, and as soon as my library buys more, I'll read them, too.
I liked this better than The Winter Queen. It's a kind of Agatha Christie pastiche, with echoes of And Then There Were Ten or Murder on the Orient Express.
I liked this better than The Winter Queen. It's a kind of Agatha Christie pastiche, with echoes of And Then There Were Ten or Murder on the Orient Express.
Oct 23, 2010
Lisa
rated it:
Russian version of Sherlock Holmes. Not very well developed suspects, which can kill a mystery... There are a couple of twists here and there, but at the end of it, it didn't seem that surprising at all when you don't feel like you've gotten to know anyone.
