The Case of Cabin 13

John Darnell #1

by Sam McCarver

The year is 1912. John Darnell is a professional investigator whose specialty is debunking theories of paranormal activities. He is approached by the Managing Director of White Star Line with a proposition. A bizarre series of apparent suicides in cabin 13 on three different White Star Line ships has the Managing Director frantic, worried that unlucky jinxes, ghosts or violent spirits will follow him onto their newest ship, the Titanic, and into cabin 13. Darnell agrees to take passage on the Titanic in cabin 13 to investigate, and once on board, he suspects the reported suicides were really murders, and tallies up a list of very-much-alive suspects, each with their own sinister motives. But when the fate of the Titanic is sealed in the icy waters of the Atlantic, will the killer get away with yet another murder?

Genres: Mystery, Historical Mystery, Crime, Fiction

344 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1999

About the author

Author of six novels in John Darnell Mystery Series, published by Penguin Putnam or Five Star. Has self-published writing books: Novel Writing for Wanna-be's and Poetry Writing for Wanna-be's. Has written and performed his poetry and has taught writing for 10 years.

Reviews

[Read1000books · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not many surprises here. There were only a couple of choices as to who the murderer could actually be, and only an option or two as to how he would meet his demise, but my main complaint was the one incident of sexual content. And I will give the benefit of the doubt to Mr. McCarver that it wasn't him that included it but more likely the editor. I honestly do not understand the "requirement" for every type of book on the market these days to include this type of content. If you're old enough to read you probably already know the details of said activity anyway! And in this book it was just plain silly. Here's why: Each chapter gives you the date, day, and sometimes whether it is morning or evening. The two main characters, John and Penny, meet on Wednesday morning (page 17). By Saturday evening (just four days later, mind you)(page 101) they're in bed together proclaiming "... I love you. More than you can know, Penny. We're part of each other now". "Yes. And for always. Nothing can ever part us". How ridiculous and juvenile. I realize this is a fictional story but it ought to at least have some tinge of reality to it. Not to mention this was the tail end of the Victorian era in which near-strangers quite probably would not have behaved this way. This is the first book in a series of six; I will probably not read any of the rest.

[Chazzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Professor John Darnell has been approached by the White Star Lines to find out if there really is a jinx on the numbered 13 cabins on three of their ships. Cabin 13 has had a suicide on each ship. Their newest and grandest, Titanic, is set to sail its maiden voyage and they want Darnell to sail and stay in cabin 13 to find out what is going on.

Darnell is the world's first and only "paranormal detective", and White Star Lines feel he is the only one who can solve the mysteries before they find themselves lacking for passengers. Darnell feels that there has to be a reason for the deaths and it isn't suicide.

A life-long bachelor, Darnell meets Penny Winters and falls in love for the first time. She also falls for him. He doesn't let her in on why he is sailing and she has a secret of her own. Neither know what is in store for them during this trip.

Darnell is given the run of the ship with a cover story of writing a paper on the Titanic's first sail. He is allowed to interview a number of passengers and crew that have been on previous voyages where the deaths have occurred. Mario Sandrini - a steward, the Blakes - a couple who always had investments to sell, Professor Dionino - a shady personality, and a number of others. Some with secrets and some without. Is there a killer among them?

I consider this a cozy type of mystery even though it takes place on the Titanic and includes some of the famous passengers and the chilling sinking. It is the first in the series and I will probably keep an eye out for following ones.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Everything was just a little too over simplified.

[Janet · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise for this book sounded thrilling: a paranormal investigator looks into why people have been committing suicide in Cabin 13 on the White Star Line's ships. He ends up in Cabin 13 on the Titanic to catch the murderer. Unfortunately the book failed to live up to my expectations. Of course everyone knows the story of the Titanic and has probably even seen the movie more than once like I have. So in that case part of the excitement was mitigated because I knew the ship was going to go down. The only mystery was, how was the protagonist going to survive? I have to say, not too far into the book I really didn't care. The characters were weakly drawn with little impact or personality to draw you in. The main character, a supposedly mature professor who prided himself on being scientific almost immediately fell into a romantic liaison with a female passenger he knew nothing about. Suddenly they were both professing undying love to each other for what seemed no reason or build up. Even the real characters seemed as flat as the images on the screen and it seemed the author did most of his research from the movie. I skipped pages and pages of the description of the sinking of the ship because it was done so much better in the movie and the author's descriptions were boring. Nothing about this really engaged my interest or enjoyment.

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, this is a first of a series featuring Professor John Darnell, whose specialty is debunking unusual phenomenon. It was a little disjointed, actually; the main plot revolves around officials from the White Star Line (of Titanic fame), who have come to Professor Darnell to ask his help. It seems that for some time, the inhabitants of Cabin 13 in various White Star ships have been driven to commit suicide, and the White Star people are hoping Darnell can find some solution before word gets out & the ship line gets a bad reputation. He agrees to take the case, and they offer him (what else) Cabin 13 on their newest ship: The Titanic. Oops.

Sounds good, right? But the problem is that there wasn't enough buildup of the story or potential suspects as far as the mystery goes, so it was somewhat of a letdown storywise. Now, I realize this was the first in the series, so you can allow some room there, but I thought the book was rather slow & frankly, a bit uninteresting as a mystery. I'll try another book by this author, definitely, because a lot of times writers tend to improve after their first books.

I would say give it a try, but I didn't like it very much.

[Myhotstylist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suprisingly enough, I really enjoyed this little gem. Im not super big on historical mysteries, but this story had a few things I really love. Mystery, Action, Romance, (((The TITANIC))) and Ghost hunting. This book was fun, light reading that was hard to put down, once it got going really good.

After being hired to debunk the jinx of Cabin 13, (apparently the result of 3 suicides) Professor John Darnell boards ship to find out whats causing the deaths. He meets and falls in love with Penny during his investigations.

Convinced these are no suicides but rather murders, John discovers the murderer mearly hours befor ethe ship sinks. Once board the Carpatian, John and his men hunt down the killer before he can strike again.

[Joel Ungar · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Case of Cabin 13 is a pretty good story and a nice start to a new mystery series. The main characters are likable and are further brought to life by being on the Titanic. Some may quibble about interjecting these people into historic events but I thought it fit in fine to my understanding of the Titanic disaster.

Things go kind of quick in the book but I read the last 100 pages or so in one gripping sitting.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historically accurate account of the Titanic (with the added mystery of course)
Paranormal investigator John Darnell is hired to check out several deaths that ocurred on several White Star line ships.
He is invited on the Titanic, and along with the drama of that a murderer is on board as well.
The mystery part was so-so, but I will try another in this series.

[Cris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Weak sense of time/place. And the mystery is also weak.