Cover of Dead Below Deck by Jan Gansei. A bloody locket inscribed 'Mi Corezon' sinks in the ocean, with a large yacht in the background.

About the Book

Title: Dead Below Deck
Published: 2024

Cover Story: My Heart Will Go On
Drinking Buddy: (Covers drink)
MPAA Rating: R (alcohol use, mild language, sexuality)
Talky Talk: Reverse Chronology
Bonus Factors: The 1%ers, Locked Room Mystery, Unreliable Narrator
Bromance Status: Yes, Please

Cover Story: My Heart Will Go On

Very nice introduction to the murder mystery, with the boat and the locket and all (though the necklace was technically found on the boat). What you see is what you get with the cover, which is certainly not the case with this mystery.

Also, there’s apparently a tabletop game also called ‘Dead Below Deck,’ so it was a pain to find the cover image.

The Deal:

Giselle is an heiress, a millionaire at eighteen, and her father has a good chance of becoming president of the United States. When her father decides to sell the family yacht, she invites three friends, including our POV narrator Maggie, along for one last party cruise to the Cayman Islands. Maggie, who comes from a much poorer background and only attends the same boarding school because of a scholarship, often feels outclassed and uncomfortable around these rich people.

And then, one morning, Maggie awakens with a whanging hangover. Giselle has vanished, her necklace is found caught on the side of the ship…and there’s security footage of someone shoving Giselle over the side, as she screams for Maggie not to push her.

What the hell happened last night? Maggie can’t remember, and this evidence is pretty damning. She better put together yesterday’s events or she’s going away for a long time.

Drinking Buddy: (Covers drink)

Two pints of beer cheersing with a "Denied" stamp over them

At the first chapter, this seemed like a very ham-handed attempt to frame Maggie for murder. The too-good-to-be-true security tape, the twitchy first mate, the fact that we can’t actually see Maggie on the footage…someone has totally set her up.

But did they? Why does Maggie have Giselle’s diary and a stack of cash in her room’s safe? Why did she lie about living in Switzerland? Why does Giselle’s diary make it seem that Maggie was almost stalking her?

Due to the odd narrative setup of the book (see below), we’re never sure if our point of view character is a murderer. And even if she’s innocent of this crime, that doesn’t mean she’s the heroine of this novel.

MPAA Rating: R (alcohol use, mild language, sexuality)

There was very little romance in this book, and it’s mostly just Giselle using and disposing of her ex boyfriend. Maggie’s obsession with Giselle made me wonder if there wasn’t something more than friendship going on there, as well as the reverse.

Talky Talk: Reverse Chronology

So the story opens with the day after Giselle’s disappearance. And then it goes backward. Each chapter happens slightly earlier than the previous one. We are left utterly in the dark about anything that happened before. Maggie refers to events and conversations we’re not privy to, and only find out when we get back to that moment in time (such as why she has Giselle’s diary).

Meanwhile, every other chapter is an entry from Giselle’s journal, starting from when she first met Maggie, about a year ago. The two POV narratives don’t intersect until the very end of the book.

All I can say is it takes a master storyteller to pull off something like this. Well done.

Bonus Factor: The 1%ers

Giselle’s family has fallen in hard times. Her veteran father’s PTSD has nearly disabled him. They all live on a failing farm. She only attends this fancy pants private school due to a hard luck scholarship.

Giselle’s father, on the other hand, is likely to become the next president. Giselle lost her mother recently, and her father replaced her with a trophy wife. “Daddy, can I please take the yacht out with my friends? Just a little jaunt to Key West, the Bahamas, and Grand Cayman?”

Is Maggie tagging along with Giselle because she wants to live the high life? Does Giselle befriend Maggie because she likes showing off? Or do they both have another agenda?

Bonus Factor: Locked Room Mystery

Cast of the movie Clue gathered in doorway

I love me a good mystery with a very limited pool of suspects and no possibility that an outsider was involved. And this is such a book. If someone pushed Giselle, was it Maggie? Even though we’re in her POV, we’re not sure, what with her blackout and odd behavior. And if Giselle isn’t dead, then where is she? It’s a big yacht, but there are only a limited number of places to hide. Just what’s going on here?

Bonus Factor: Unreliable Narrator

A line up of the cast of The Usual Suspects

It’s not that we assume Maggie is lying. It’s not that we assume Giselle’s journal isn’t accurate. But there’s something very weird going on here, and since we’re coming into this backwards, we’re not sure who to believe.

Bromance Status: Yes, Please

You had me at backward narrative, and the ending did not disappoint. While it’s kind of pointless to reread a mystery, I look forward to the next book by this author.

Literary Matchmaking

Murder On The Orient Express (Hercule Poirot #9)

Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express also deals with a crime on an isolated vehicle.

Lying in the Deep

Lying in the Deep, by Diana Urban, also is about a girl accused of murdering someone on a yacht.

The Opposite of Here

Tara Altebrando’s The Opposite of Here also deals with a shipboard vanishing.

FTC Full Disclosure: I received neither money nor casino chips for writing this review, though they did send me a free e-copy of the book.

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Brian wrote his first YA novel when he was down and out in Mexico. He now lives in Missouri with his wonderful wife and daughter. He divides his time between writing and working as a school librarian. Brian still misses the preachy YA books of the eighties.