The Devil and the Dark Water: A Locked-Room Historical Mystery by Stuart Turton

An Amazon Best Book of the Year — 2020! "Compulsively readable."—New York Times Book Review Named a Best Book of 2020 by The Guardian, Daily Mail, Financial Times, The Independent, Publishers Weekly, and more. The extraordinary new thriller from Stuart Turton, author of the bestselling murder mystery The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, winner of the Costa Best First Novel Award. A murder on the high seas. A remarkable detective duo. A demon who may or may not exist. It's 1634, and Samuel Pipps, the world's greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. Traveling with him is his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes, who is determined to prove his friend innocent. Among the other guests is Sara Wessel, a noblewoman with a secret. But no sooner is their ship out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. A strange symbol appears on the sail. A dead leper stalks the decks. Livestock dies in the night. Read more