The Widow's Cruise

 The Widow's Cruise (1959) by Nicholas Blake (Cecil Day-Lewis)

"The only thing I have against cruise life," said Clare, yawning again, "is that it's turning us all into busybodies and gossips."

Clare Massinger is a renowned sculptor who is afraid that her ideas are getting stale. A cruise to the Greek isles, full of classical temples and ruins and beautiful scenery should be just the think to to get the creative juices flowing in new and exciting ways. She and Nigel Strangeways book a trip that sails from Athens and will take them to Delos and a number of islands in the Dodecanese, returning to the mainland by way of Crete and including excursions to Epidaurus, Mycenae, and Delphi. Also included, but not explicitly mentioned in the itinerary, is brush with ancient tragedy...in the form of murder.

Miss Ianthe Ambrose, former schoolteacher, has apparently had run-ins with several of those on the cruise--from Faith Trubody, a student whom Miss Ambrose arranged to be dismissed, and her brother Peter, who has vowed to get even with the woman, to Mr. Jeremy Street who has suffered academic humiliation from Miss Ambrose's scathing reviews in scholarly journals to her own sister who may have been goodhearted enough to treat Miss Ambrose to a cruise but who would like just a teensy bit of time to herself so she can enjoy herself...with a man or two. In addition to the irritating teacher, there are a couple of people who make it their business to try and find out as much as possible about their fellow passengers. There's Primrose Chalmers, a schoolgirl who follows folks around and writes everything down in a notebook. And there's Ivor Bentick-Jones, equally as interested in his fellow passengers' secrets, but possibly for far more nefarious reasons.

When Miss Ambrose disappears from the ship and Primrose is strangled, there's speculation about whether Miss Ambrose killed the girl and then committed suicide. The teacher had been acting oddly and seemed almost suicidal. But Nigel isn't convinced. Perhaps someone killed Miss Ambrose and tossed her overboard and maybe Primrose saw more than she should have and was killed for it. After, all the girl's notebook is missing too. The captain recognizes Strangeways and asks him to take a hand in the matter--it is hoped that Nigel will be able to discreetly investigate and be ready to hand the culprit over to the Greek authorities when they return to dock. Adroit questioning and a final, gather-all-the-suspects together scene allows Nigel to do just that.

I'm reading these Blake mysteries from a 3-in-1 Blake Treasury anthology (in reverse order, by the way).  And I must say that I enjoyed this one much more than The Worm of Death. While psychology is still important here, Blake gives us a much more classic mystery set-up with plenty of clues (and red herrings) strewn about and a nice closed circle crime to investigate. Even though part of the mystery took place on one of the islands along the way, we still have a limited cast of characters, all trapped together on the cruise ship. Blake makes the most of the setting and while few of the characters are any more appealing than those in Worm, we do have the benefit of the Bishop and his wife to give us a couple of pleasant people for Nigel to interact with. Of the later Blake mysteries, this is my favorite so far. ★★★ and 1/4. 

First line: There was something wrong with the swans that May afternoon.

Last line: "You said, 'Well, if they are, they're overdoing it badly.'"

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Deaths = 2 (one strangled; one drowned)