Singing in the Shrouds

It's foul play on a freighter: "Enthralling...keeps the reader on tenterhooks until the dramatic finale." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
The good ship Cape Farewell is steaming out to sea, with a passenger-list and crew fairly littered with the shifty, the twitchy, the peculiar, and the up-to-no-good. Arguably the up-to-no-goodest is a strangler with a romantic streak: He likes to leave his ladies with a flower and a charming little song. The latest of the ladies is currently lying on a fogbound London dock, mute witness to the fact that Inspector Alleyn-long on the strangler's trail-has so far failed to catch his man. A wintertime sailing on a low-rent cargo ship is not Alleyn's idea of a terrific time, but he nevertheless boards the Cape at Portsmouth, determined that no one else is going to get strangled on his watch....
"This is the Classic Puzzle at its purest...embellished by literate dialogue and attractive characterization." - The New York Times