This reads like an historical cozy. Akunin is in top form and serves a solid whodunnit in an enclosed space : a cruise ship.

The clues are there all along, there are some out of the hat things but not many and the characters are colourful and interesting enough to keep you reading until the end to find out who did it.

Fadorin is not the only lead in this tale of deceit and foolish pursuit of untold treasure. This a multiple voices type of point of view and it does bring something of the unexpected to the tale.

A very solid 3 stars.