This had a great historical mystery element to it, it worked with what I was hoping for and enjoyed from other books like this. The mystery element worked well overall and thought it had a great plot overall. I enjoyed the way the characters were written and that they were smart in this universe. I was engaged with what was happening and left me wanting to read more.

This is book five in the Inspector Ryga series, but luckily for me, this works perfectly as a stand alone book.
Policing in 1951, was so very different. When Sir Bernard Compton goes missing and his consulting rooms at Harley Street in London are ransacked, no motive is immediately obvious. The Doctor is retired and has gone to Scotland to pick up his new boat, which he then intends to travel down the West coast, looking for somewhere to retire to.
The titular Inspector and his team have to make enquiries about any possible motive or ill feeling, arrange for crime scene photographs to be taken, and then wait a few days for them to be developed, make house to house enquiries, telephone various Marinas to find out both the name of the new boat and its planned route home. So very labour intensive and wearing on the shoe leather!!
When a body is found on the boat ( not a spoiler, that’s the title ), this starts of a chain reaction of events and deaths that seems almost farcical. There are numerous suspects, rather a lot of delightful skullduggery happens, and one victim appears to have been universally disliked, with the words venomous, cunning, manipulative being the politest of them all. The question is posed, is it ever morally justified to murder a person so deserving of that fate?!!
There are themes of suicide, mental health, drug taking, blackmail, post natal depression and coercive control in this story.
I liked this novel, and have a few books to catch up on. The back story of the Inspector is also intriguing, he appears very tolerant of his fellow man, despite what is hinted at regarding his suffering as a a prisoner of war. A five star read.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers Joffre books for my advanced copy, freely given in exchange for my honest review. I will leave copies to Goodreads and Amazon UK upon publication.

historical-places-events, historical-novel, historical-research, historical-setting, history-and-culture, 1950s, Cornwall, murders, investigations, police-detectives, procedural, PTSD, conundrum, crime-thriller, extortion, geology, grief, grieving, justice, lies, merchant-mariner, mining, mysteries, rage, secrets, spousal-abuse, suspense, tragedy, unpleasant-victims, unputdownable, consequences*****

The local was in a great hurry to have the first murder declared "natural causes". There was no such nonsense with the second. Veteran of The Great War Inspector Ryga is seconded to Cornwall from Scotland Yard and finds more than anyone expected. Excellent police work in this extremely twisty novel of deviousness.
Nobody has chastised me yet for giving a biased review because I really love this author's work!
I requested and received a free temporary EARC from Joffe Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

This police procedural book provides a fascinating insight into life in the 1950s. The pace of an investigation has to be so much slower than today: waiting days for results, for photos to be developed, for someone to call back if they were out when you called them, using the library to look up train time tables etc. I thought Ryga was an interesting character, and the Cornish coastal setting is very well described. I would have liked the pace of the story to be a bit faster, as it did for the the last 10% of the book, so only 4 stars.

It's 1951, and Inspector Ryga is summoned to Cornwall from Scotland Yard. Sir Bernard Crompton, a dermatologist, has been found dead on his new yacht. The local ME has ruled the death natural, but Ryga has questions. Then when another murder is discovered, Ryga begins to uncover information showing what horrible people these two men were. Is solving the case worth it? Is there a situation where the crimes could even be called justified? This atmospheric historical mystery paints a vivid picture of a postwar British seaside town, and shows how Ryga's own experience as a German POW continues to influence him. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this ARC.