It’s 1938 and Eleanor Roosevelt is returning home on the S. S. Normandie from an ‘unofficial’ visit to France. Onboard ship she is surrounded by luminaries: Jack Benny & Mary Livingstone, Charles Lindbergh, Josephine Baker, and a very young John F. Kennedy. She is also surrounded by murder and international intrigue. A Russian diplomat is murdered during an impromptu cocktail party in his suite, and it appears only one person had the opportunity to spike his fatal drink. However, there are a myriad of suspects who might have wanted him dead. When a cache of jewels is stolen and another murder takes place, it seems there is a lot more going on aboard ship than meets the eye. Eleanor joins forces with the ship’s French detective, as well as Jack Kennedy, to solve the mystery and bring the killer to justice.

This is a reasonable little mystery that manages to hold the reader’s attention without being too captivating or entertaining. There really is nothing better than a traditional mystery set on a ship or a train, and the backdrop aboard the ocean liner Normandie is really the charming star of the show. All of the fun ‘guest stars’ are also a treat…especially Jack Benny; unfortunately, they are not as big a presence as they could have been, &—with the exception of Jack Kennedy—they don’t really come into play in solving the mysteries onboard. Eleanor Roosevelt herself comes across as kind of bland.

Politics and international intrigue— defections, Russian agents, turmoil in Europe, etc.—are a major component of the storyline which kind of made the story drag; espionage and war thrillers aren’t really my cup of tea, so I wish it had followed more of a straightforward cozy mystery plotline.

This isn’t a great mystery by any stretch of the imagination, but—if a copy happens to come your way—you could do a lot worse than this for reading material. ( )