Opening with a chapter that meets various characters boarding the Montrose liner to Canada, I was slightly puzzled at the lack of mention of Crippen. The next chapter goes back in time and follows Crippen through his youth, the third flashes back again to the present day, months earlier than the first chapter, as Cora Crippen's suspicious friend takes her concerns to Scotland Yard... The novel continues in this fashion, moving between places, times, and characters and it's a conceit that Boyne handles with aplomb. Never confusing, always enlightening, each chapter filling in a piece of the puzzle to explain who Crippen is, who Cora was, how she came to be murdered, and how Crippen and LeNeve find themselves disguised on board the Montrose with Scotland Yard's finest in pursuit.
It's a really rivetting read, and every character, no matter how incidental, is well drawn. All of Crippen's interactions with travellers on board the ship are filled with possibilities - will he kill again? Will they work out who he is? Will the ghastly Victoria succeed in seducing Edmund a.k.a. Ethel? Parts of Crippen's life are drip-fed through revelations and the details of his life. It's a fascinating study of a man brow-beaten by his wife, and Boyne almost appears to excuse Hawley's actions by explaining how much of a harridan Cora was. And then there's the twist, and the twists continue through the last couple of chapters as the real murderer is revealed. When I picked this book up I was expected a throwaway crime story I could read in a couple of days and not think about again, but Crippen proved to be far more enthralling.
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