Abstract

In 1795, the Royal Navy was chronically short of soldiers due to the long war with France. The battlecruiser Hulbert, replenishing its complement of sailors by forcibly recruiting civilians, set sail for the North Sea. On the night of a new moon, a sailor is murdered in the middle of those on duty, but no one saw the murderer. Who killed him, why, and how on a ship with nowhere to run?　More murders follow, interspersed with a grueling battle with the French Navy. Vernon, a former sailor, investigates to find out the identity of the murderer who has disappeared... This work, which won the 33rd Ayukawa tetsuya prize, is a straightforward depiction of an impossible crime that takes place in the huge locked room of a warship at sea.

Author’s Information

Born 1987 in Okayama Pref. A graduate of Tottori University graduate school. Okamoto won the 33rd Ayukawa tetsuya prize for new mystery writers with DEATH ON A WARSHIP.