Charles Vincent Emerson Starrett (1886-1974) was born in Canada and was educated in Chicago. He became a reporter and war correspondent in WW1. He was an editor and writing teacher; he reviewed books for the Chicago Tribune for over thirty years. Mostly Starrett is known for his Sherlockian studies. He wrote non-fiction books about Doyle and other writers, poetry, and magazine articles. He produced a Holmes pastiche, The Unique Hamlet (Privately printed, 1920) He was an inaugural member of the Baker Street Irregulars when it took form in 1934. His most popular book is The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (Macmillan, 1933). For more details, see https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Vincent_Starrett and http://www.vincentstarrett.com/about.
His lovely sonnet called simply 221B is familiar to almost anyone who dabbles in Sherlockiana:
Here dwell together still two men of note
Who never lived and so can never die:
How very near they seem, yet how remote
That age before the world went all awry.
But still the game’s afoot for those with ears
Attuned to catch the distant view-halloo:
England is England yet, for all our fears
Only those things the heart believes are true.
A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane
As night descends upon this fabled street:
A lonely hansom splashes through the rain,
The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet.
Here, though the world explode, these two survive,
And it is always eighteen ninety-five.
When Starrett wanted a diversion from Holmes, he wrote mystery novels and short stories. His series characters were Riley Blackwood, Walter Ghost, Jimmie Lavender, and the duo of George Washington Troxell and Fred Dellabough. The first of the Walter Ghost books is Murder on “B” Deck, printed in New York by Grosset & Dunlap in 1929.
It starts with a midnight bon voyage party for which mystery novelist Dunstan Mollock is an hour late. After a couple of rushed drinks with the small party gathered, the group is hustled toward the gangplank. Once off the boat Mollock realizes he still had the copy of his latest book he’d brought expressly for the travelers. He dashes back to the ship, and it sails before he can leave.
Fortunately he finds friends on board including Walter Ghost, described as a high-class troubleshooter. The captain of the ship calls on Ghost’s skills when one of the passengers is found murdered on the second night of the cruise. Mollock thirsts to use his detective skills, honed in writing about a dozen mysteries, and becomes Ghost’s assistant in the investigation which the captain of the ship is anxious to keep quiet.
Suspense builds as the news leaks out and the passengers understand they are stranded on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean with a murderer. Ghost is methodical and careful but must contend with the wild theories of his shipmates.
Original plot with some interesting clues; nice assortment of characters, many summed up in a few well-chosen words; readable writing if a little verbose. For students of early 20th century detective fiction.