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In his second book, The Devil and the Dark Water, Stuart Turton places a 17th-century Sherlock Holmes-style detective on a ship traveling from Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), bound for Amsterdam. Samuel Pipps is well-known and respected for solving many kinds of crimes just with keen observation and questioning. He’s not in it for money; he enjoys the challenge. But for a reason only known to the governor general, Jan Haan, he’s been arrested and put in chains and will have to pass the months of the journey in a dark and solitary cell. His loyal assistant and bodyguard, Arent Hayes, is confused and frustrated and can’t get any answers about why his mentor has been arrested, but he is determined to protect him and get him safely to Amsterdam.
It’s 1634, and travel on these Indiaman galleons, loaded with spices for sale, is dangerous as it is. But just before they board, a leper approaches and tells the boarding passengers his “dark master” is aboard the ship and “all who board will be ruined.” Then he catches fire. Arent tries to help the man and find out the meaning of the warning, but all he can see is that the man’s tongue had been cut out, making it seemingly impossible for him to say anything. Once the ship sets sail, more strange things happen, and in this era of superstition and belief in witches and demons, it’s easy for most of the passengers and crew to fear the worst: a demon called Old Tom is threatening them, and they won’t make it to Amsterdam.
With Sammy trapped in a cell deep inside the ship, Arent is left to try to piece together clues and solve the mystery of what’s happening. He’s aided by the governor general’s wife, Sara Wessel, who is as kind and generous as her husband is cruel and profiteering. The two form a friendship and work together as much as they can (given that Sara’s husband allows her little freedom) to ask questions of passengers, sailors and musketeers on board and investigate any possible clue. As time goes on, the danger escalates, and it’s imperative they figure out who is behind all the death and mayhem if they are to reach safety.
It’s interesting and unusual to read a mystery like this set in this era. As it progresses, it becomes clear that there’s a reason each of the major characters is on board the ship, and their distant backgrounds come into play. Turton teases the reader with the demon: Is this a story touched by the supernatural or not? If so, how can the characters possibly save themselves on the high seas when facing a demon? If not, there are still too many characters who do believe in the demon and will go to drastic lengths to protect themselves, so the ship truly is doomed, out in the middle of the ocean. The reader wonders how in the world this story can be resolved.
So I did enjoy the book; it just wasn’t nearly as jaw-dropping and clever as Turton’s previous book, The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. It earned an adjective that very few books can: unique. As much as it blew me away, it was inevitable that Turton wouldn’t be able to follow up with a second book that unusual and gripping. Without comparing, however, this is a solid book.
Rated: Moderate. Language includes occasional mild and moderate profanity. Sexual content includes one woman being a known mistress to a married man; that married man having a quick sexual session with his wife, who doesn’t like it but does so out of duty; some vulgar talk. Violence includes a fair amount of deaths in various ways; the deaths pile up toward the end of the book. Animals are slaughtered; people get in fist and knife fights; people drown; one man is set on fire; some people are stabbed; some are gutted. The setting is a ship in the 1600s, and conditions aren’t great; there are plenty of unsanitary situations and a number of references to characters (men) relieving themselves on and off the side of the ship; most of the sailors and soldiers have nasty backgrounds and few morals.
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