A Tempest at Sea, Sherry Thomas

A Tempest at Sea
Sherry Thomas
336 pages
Berkley, 2023

From Goodreads: After feigning her own death in Cornwall to escape from Moriarty’s perilous attention, Charlotte Holmes goes into hiding. But then she receives a tempting offer: Find a dossier the crown is desperately seeking to recover, and she might be able to go back to a normal life.

Her search leads her aboard the RMS Provence, sailing from Southampton for the eastern hemisphere. But on the night Charlotte makes her move to retrieve the dossier, in the midst of a terrifying storm in the Bay of Biscay, a brutal murder also takes place on the ship.

Instead of solving the crime, as she is accustomed to doing, Charlotte must take care not to be embroiled in this investigation, lest it become known to those who harbor ill intentions that Sherlock Holmes is abroad and still very much alive.

The seventh (!) book in the Lady Sherlock series did not disappoint. The mystery takes place on a a ship heading east and is filled with a diverse group of travelers. Charlotte, of course, is undercover (thanks Moriarty!) but has been given the task of finding a secret dossier onboard. Her beau, Lord Ashburton, is on board with his children and their governess, and most surprising of all, Charlotte's mother shows up at the last minute with her maid, and Charlotte's sister Livia. Also on the boat are a brother and sister pair, a married couple, and a few singletons. Soon the aforementioned brother is found shot to death in his cabin... but wait! Charlotte is undercover so she can't take on the case! Instead she must sit by while Ashburton assists the investigation with the Inspector onboard. Things get even more tricky when her mother becomes suspect number one.

This book has no time to get stale, as there are multiple points-of-view, plenty of sneaking around by the passengers, lots of secrets, and some flashbacks that conveniently shed more information on the case... and also make it impossible to solve unless you're Charlotte herself. Once the murder occurs, I didn't want to put the book down. Of course the first person I suspected seemed quite guilty despite lack of motive, and in the end it was someone completely different. I really enjoyed the ending although by that point I had forgotten Charlotte was even looking for a dossier until she found it. Oops! Finally, I simply want to say "GO LIVIA!"

A Tempest at Sea will be released March 14, 2023 and if you haven't started this addictive mystery series I suggest you start now. I can't thank NetGalley and Berkley enough for continuing to allow me to read this series in advance. All opinions here are my own.