All aboard!

Peril on the Atlantic by A.M. Howell (Usborne, 2023)

Ann-Marie Howell's latest novel, out in August, is a rollicking who(-nearly-)dunnit set aboard the ocean liner Queen Mary in the 1930s. As always with this writer, it is packed with historical detail par excellence with references to the Titanic, and even a cameo from Fred and Ginger. But, possibly even more importantly to young readers, it is intricately plotted with a final denouement that I really did not see coming. (In fact, I'd already hedged my bets on a different character being revealed in a new light.) Howell does this - mighty successfully, too - every time. 

Ann-Marie's storytelling is old-fashioned in the very best sense, unfailingly warm and cosy; the author doesn't fall for any grand gestures or awkward 'with-it' nods to the 'modern' kid. What she does so well - and what all children love and appreciate - is to tell a magnificent story, and hers are ones that are full of mystery and twists and turns, the ones that keep you guessing and the ones that children year after year have told me they have enjoyed particularly. 

Of course, setting a crime story aboard an ocean liner crossing the Atlantic places Howell's novel in the very best category of "closed room" mystery, a form which has attracted the talents of many a crime writer over the years: there is a limited number of suspects, there's no way out (or off the boat) for anyone until the final docking, and there's that ominous sense of claustrophobia knowing without a doubt that someone you've read about is the one to blame. Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, And then there were none (the plus ne ultra!) and Death on the Nile are not far from the world of the Queen Mary in Howell's novel.

For children, there's an added bonus. It's no secret what makes Enid Blyton so popular with younger readers: it's that 'cosy' security knowing that the mystery will tighten but then unravel towards a satisfying end, the sense of knowing the children-heroes and them becoming your own friends, story after story. And while Howell's books (at least up to now!) have always focused on different characters, there's a connecting thread with boys and girls helping each other in their search for respective solutions. In Peril on the Atlantic, I was most reminded of Blyton's Famous Five - four children and their pet (here Timmy is translated into Rocket, the mouse) - all pulling together, using each other's strengths to foil those dastardly villains! There was even a bit of the old-skool lingo - 'Jolly good!' says Alice at one point. 

But although I'd always praise Howell for the very particular way she embraces these more traditional modes of storytelling, I also love the very gentle nudges towards the needs of modern children. There's often slightly darker currents swirling beneath the 'jolly good'  fun of the surface escapades: in The Garden of Lost Secrets there's the deeply sad sense of being let down - badly - by a loved member of one's own family; and the plot of The House of One Hundred Clocks deals with mental illness and guilt. It is the presence of these currents that add a coloration to the narrative that would never have appeared so explicitly in children's books of an earlier generation, at least not in the Howell context of how children are encouraged to understand, to learn, to accept, to empathise and, most importantly, to adjust and cope with life-truths that might take any of us by surprise, and at any moment. For this, I for one am very glad of the presence of Ann-Marie's books, there to help guide, as well as entertain, the new generation.

Peril on the Atlantic by A.M. Howell is published by Usborne on 3rd August 2023. With many thanks to Fritha Linqvist and Usborne for sending me an early proof copy.