Not Wanted on Voyage by Nancy Spain

Condition: Good for age. Some damage to cover and text block. Penguin Books no 1163, 1956. Not Wanted on Voyage concerns a most peculiar pleasure cruise, undertaken in the Comet — a vessel belonging to the Dutch and English Comet Line, now peopled by the crazy and improbable people Miss Spain special-izes in. Douglass Comett, the English director of the line, is perturbed. Heroin is being smuggled into England and the Comet is probably the vehicle used for the traffic. His contact man, Roger Partick-Thistle, suggests a nice discreet detective who might well solve everything. But she is the ex-actress Miriam Birdseye. Sopoet, Frederick Pyke, Douglass Comett, his beautiful, difficult wife Hero, Gordon Furbank, the odd author of historical novels, Furbank’s wife Zitha, little June Comett, her Nanny, and half a hundred more. Also on the passenger list are Sir Timothy Shelly and his lovely new wife, Natasha, who had been a ballerina and Miriam’s partner. This is an extraordinary funny, witty, and un-orthodox kind of crime story.