A review by e_read_books
Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

3.75

A really well thought out murder mystery considering there were 12 characters each with pretty different magical abilities to keep track of over 12 days in a fairly large ship. There were multiple equally plausible suspects to keep the reader guessing and as such I couldn't be truly surprised when the killer was revealed but the motives and plans still had some unexpected twists.

I was worried in the first couple of chapters that Dee would be too annoying of a character for me to follow. I'll admit his humour did not always land for me, but his true depth is quickly revealed to us and he ended up being a really compelling character and a pretty good detective. I absolutely loved his relationship with little Grasshopper (truly Adorable Level 5/5).

Lowering the score for me is I didn't quite jive with some of the humour and also the conclusion, though it fits well with Dee's character arc. I'm just never going to prefer
Dee becoming the new Emporer "ruling the right way" over abolishing the system altogether. Though there was mention of independence later down the line
. However, the meat of the story i.e. the murder mystery was a great fun time and the differing character dynamics between the 12 heirs created plenty of opportunity for great dialogue scenes with lots of character.
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