How the case begins
In the footsteps of Lou Dorsey, the first mate
The Belle of Cairo is the last of the big paddle steamers, and this is her farewell cruise. Three days down the Mississippi, October 1922. The calliope plays the old songs. The dining room is full of people telling each other what the river used to be like. Colonel Ashby owns the Belle. At dinner he tells everyone he is selling her to a man who will keep her running. On the second morning, the steward finds the Colonel dead in his cabin behind the pilothouse. A deck of marked cards is spread across his table. His son's unpaid IOUs sit in the drawer. By breakfast, the passengers have locked the boat's gambler in his room. The captain gives the job to his first mate, Lou Dorsey. Find out what happened, he says, before we reach Vicksburg.
- 1The Officers' Country
- 2Squared in the Drawer
- 3Boilers and Plate
- 4What the River Knew
- 5The Unscheduled Watch
- 6The Loud Hour
- 7Running Empty
- 8The Professional's Tools
- 9Deadman's Reach
- 10One Last Watchbring your clues
Each chapter is a short scene and a puzzle, and every puzzle leaves you one clue. Keep all nine. The finale needs them.
Prefer pen and paper?
The whole case as one large-print booklet: every chapter and its puzzle, a clue ledger to fill in, and the ending sealed on the last page.
The people of the case
- Lou Dorsey. The first mate. The captain wants him to find out what happened before they reach Vicksburg.
- Colonel Ashby. The Belle's owner. Loves a crowd, pays for every round, and says the boat is going to a good home.
- Nathan Creel. The pilot, thirty years on this river. The young pilots say he can read the water by moonlight.
- Julius Kane. A professional gambler on the farewell cruise. Polite, sober, and very hard to beat at cards.
- Warren Ashby. The Colonel's son. Charming, in debt, and drunk since the boat left St. Louis.
- Cora Deene. Plays the calliope, twenty seasons on the Belle. Knows every story on the boat, and most of the secrets.
- Otis Varner. The chief engineer. Knows every gauge on the Belle and argues with anyone who touches them.
- Moses Till. The steward. Has set the Colonel's table for thirty years and notices everything.
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