A review by theelliemo
The Sinking Admiral by Kate Charles, David Roberts, The Detection Club, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Simon Brett, Natasha Cooper, Michael Jecks, Peter Lovesey, Tim Heald, Janet Laurence, Michael Ridpath, Stella Duffy, L.C. Tyler, Martin Edwards, Laura Wilson

2.0

A disappointment. I enjoyed the original collaborative novel by the Detection Club, The Floating Admiral, and had high hopes for this modern homage, but it didn’t achieve. This was written using a different approach to the Floating Admiral (in which each participating member of The Detection Club wrote a chapter each), with different authors writing each sub-plot and each part being weaved into the novel as appropriate. It’s lead to a disjointed novel, with little flow, several continuity errors, and a range of underdeveloped and unlikeable characters. The two detectives in particular are dreadful caricatures. Simon Brett’s introduction points out that because the crime genre has developed into so many different sub-genres, it wasn’t possible to write The Sinking Admiral in the same way as The Floating Admiral. Based on this evidence, I would go further, and suggest it just simply isn’t possible.