Voyage of the Damned

The provinces of Concordia are each named after an animal from their founding legend and ruled over by an imperial family. Every province has a governing family that passes on a magical Blessing once per generation. Once this happens, the new Blessed all go on a pilgrimage together. Dee of Fish Province does not have a Blessing due to his father’s infidelity but is pretending to while confined aboard a ship with all the Blessed of his generation. Then the murders begin. Now, trapped in the ultimate locked room mystery, Dee teams up with Bear and Grasshopper provinces to investigate. Readers know as much as the trio of Blessed do, making this an excellent narrative for those who prefer deductive mysteries over currently more common mystery/thrillers. Despite this information and an impressive lack of both plot holes and true red herrings, only dedicated sleuths will figure things out before Dee does. The story clips along at a genre-appropriate rate, which will retain readers initially caught up in a premise that combines the recently rebooted Fruits Basket anime/manga franchise with the 1985 cult classic film Clue. Characters come from diverse cultures and have a variety of skin tones, and there is an assumed queer default. One significant character is a wheelchair user and another copes with chronic illness.