i have read 3 akunin mysteries and this is my favorite so far. The use of narratives from different characters (reminiscent of wilkie collins, one of my all time favorites) worked well and added to the variety, making up for the closed setting of the ship.
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París, marzo de 1878. Tras la aparición de una serie de cadáveres en la villa de lord Littleby, un coleccionista de arte indio, se hace cargo del caso el comisario Gauche, viejo sabueso de la policía francesa. Las pistas lo conducen hasta el Leviatán, un lujoso transatlántico que realiza la ruta entre Southampton y Calcuta. A medio camino, en Port Said, se une al pasaje un apuesto, culto y sagaz diplomático ruso llamado Erast Fandorin, que viaja a Japón en misión profesional. Ante su presencia en uno de los salones del buque, donde Gauche reúne todos los días a un grupo de confiados pasajeros entre los que se encuentra el asesino, las mujeres caen rendidas a sus pies y los hombres recelan. Poco después, cuando todos empiezan a sospechar de todos y el ambiente se enrarece, un nuevo crimen pone a prueba la sapiencia y astucia del experto comisario, que deberá discernir si la impresionante intuición del joven ruso es digna de su confianza o si, por el contrario, es preferible atenerse a sus propias lucubraciones.

This is a historical whodunit murder mystery story set in the late 1870's, starting in Paris. A clue found at the scene of a horrific mass murder leads police commissioner Gauche to the passenger ship Leviathan. Using the clue, Gauche narrows a potential pool of suspects to the crew and first class passengers of the ship. He joins the ship as an "honored guest of the shipping line" as it embarks on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to an ultimate destination of Calcutta,India At Port Said, Egypt, Russian diplomat Erast Fandorin joins the ship as a passenger. Initially Gauche considers him a potential suspect too but later changes his mind and views him as a rival detective. Most of the story takes place on the ship, which becomes the "country house" of many classic Golden Age murder mystery stories. It is written in the Agatha Christie style, with a disparate cast of suspects, and Fandorin playing the Hercule Poirot role, in sorting out an intricate plot.

It a good proxy for a Christie novel.with several red herring "solutions" along the way to the final resolution of the mystery. It made for good reading for me, except there is a series of distracting soliloquies in the middle of the book that I found to be tedious and boring.

This was my introduction to the writings of Boris Akunin and I'm sufficiently interested to read another book in this series. ( )

Before the Leviathan leaves France on its maiden voyage, a wealthy man and his ten servants die at the hands of a murderer who leaves behind his ticket for passage on the steamship. Police commissioner Gauche boards the vessel, identifying ten suspects whom he manages to get assigned to the same salon. Will he or the stuttering Russian detective Erast Fandorin be the one to solve the mystery? Additional murders occur aboard.

I listened to the audiobook and the stutter nearly drove me crazy at points. I wish I had chosen the ebook or print book instead. The mystery pays homage to Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express with the venue being an 1878 steamship rather than a passenger train. I won't spoil the plot by revealing too much, but Akunin carefully crafts the mystery, keeping readers second guessing themselves almost to the end with lots of twists and turns. ( )

Before we read about the murder *on* the Leviathan, there are eleven murders *off* the Leviathan: a wealthy British collector and ten members of his household are all found dead in the collector's house in Paris, and a gold statue of Shiva is missing. The only clue is an emblem given to holders of first-class tickets for the maiden voyage of the Leviathan. Police Commissioner Gauche wangles his way aboard and puts together a likely group of suspects. Will he solve the case before the ship reaches its final destination, or will Erast Fandorin have it figured out first?

This was an enjoyable read. I am a sucker for mysteries set on ships in the golden age of ocean liners, and the atmosphere of this posh passenger cruise was rendered very well. The use of multiple narrators brought interest to the proceedings as well, showing the reader how each of the passengers was perceived by the others. I was not quite convinced by Mr. Aono's entries, mainly in terms of self-description and some of the style, and of course the conceit of accurately reproducing dialogue in diary forms always requires some suspension of disbelief. Overall, this was pretty good. I would certainly try another in the series, even if it didn't involve a ship. ( )