Murder on the Leviathan by Boris Akunin (Erast Fandorin #3) (Jan/Feb 25)

[Susan]

Welcome to our Jan/Feb 25 buddy read of Murder on the Leviathan The third book in the Erast Fandorin series was published in 2004.

On 15th March 1878 Lord Littleby, an English eccentric and collector, is found murdered in his Paris house together with nine members of his staff. A gold whale in the victim's hand leads Erast Fandorin to board the Leviathan, the world's largest steamship, as the murderer is one of the 142 first class passengers.

Commissioner Gauche of the French police has narrowed down the suspects to ten, and they are forced to eat together at every meal time in the ship's Windsor Suite until 'the Crime of the Century' is solved. But is the murderer really at the table, and can Erast Fandorin discover his or her identity before Gauche? As more passengers are murdered and the Leviathan heads towards Calcutta, Fandorin needs all his investigative skills to find the truth.

Please do not post spoilers in this thread. Thank you.

[Judy]

I'm looking forward to this one as the introduction sounds really intriguing! Who is reading it or planning to?

Thanks as always to Susan for setting up the threads.

The spoiler thread is linked below:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Pamela]

I’ll be reading this, I agree Judy the introduction sounds intriguing. I find Fandorin quite a mysterious character too.

[Sandy]

I will be starting today. I agree with Pamela that I find Fandorin as mysterious as the mystery. I like the closed-circle aspect of the steamship though I am a bit put off by the Christie comparison in the flyleaf of my library hardback.

Looking forward to the shipboard setting as I bailed out of our buddy read series quite early.

[Susan]

I wasn't sure about continuing this series, but I really liked this one! A much more straightforward mystery and less secret societies, etc.

[Sandy]

I'm enjoying it as well. Particularly like the different character in each chapter (though there is one I would like to see less of).

[Susan]

I am hoping the series becomes more mystery based moving forward. Earlier books reminded me of some of Christie's international gang adventures, which I never really warmed to.

[Sandy]

I enjoyed this. The different characters backgrounds were every bit as good as the mystery.

[Susan]

I agree, Sandy. I'm almost scared to read the next one, in case I don't like it now. I want more like this one.

[Judy]

I've started this now and am enjoying it so far. I listened to a little on Spotify but then realised the audio version is abridged (only slightly, I think), so decided to stick with reading the ebook. The narrator is good though.