Summary

Paris, 1878: Eccentric antiquarian Lord Littleby and nine members of his household are found murdered in Littleby’s mansion on the rue de Grenelle, and a precious Indian statue is missing. Police commissioner “Papa” Gauche recovers only one piece of evidence from the crime scene: a golden badge shaped like a whale. The trinket is in fact the emblem of the Leviathan, a gigantic steamship soon to depart for Calcutta. The murderer must be among its passengers.

In Cairo, the ship is boarded by a young Russian diplomat with a slight stammer—none other than the intrepid detective Erast Fandorin, who joins forces with Gauche to determine which of ten suspicious passengers in the Windsor dining salon is the killer. As the Leviathan steams toward its destination, will Fandorin be able to out-investigate Gauche and discover the identity of the killer, even as the ship’s passengers are murdered one by one?