The last Dave Stone book I read was Heart of TARDIS,
which was decent, but was essentially one big reference to The Simpsons. This made me a little apprehensive going into
Ship of Fools, his first book for the Bernice Summerfield range, as one
thing this range must stay away from doing is being overly referential to Doctor
Who. Virgin Publishing no longer
had the Doctor Who license so these references would have to be veiled, so
it became a welcome surprise when outside of one big name drop of the Doctor being
someone Benny travelled with, it is confined to interludes. These interludes are humorous sendups of the
classic cinema serials with a Doctor Who twist, though the main character
is Doctor Po and is revealed to be a character in the actual book in one of
Stone’s many twists (and yes as with any Stone book there are many twists). This is also one of those books that’s a bit
more disconnected from the arc, though not enough to make it unnecessary. Benny in particular gets a lot of follow up
to Beyond the Sun where she had to confront for the first time that she
still loves Jason and actually has to see him in that book. This book ends up really giving Benny a
distraction, which makes a small Jason cameo right near the end hit a lot
harder, especially once he is shacking up with his secretary/assistant (that
fact isn’t quite made clear but it’s Jason Kane so you know how it is).
The story is a sendup of murder mysteries, sending a group
of eccentrics into a secluded location and slowly killing them off with the
notorious thief, the Cat’s Paw, who has stolen from Krytell Industries CEO,
Marcus Krytell. Benny is the first on
the list to help get it back and she must don a new persona: Bernice
Summersdale, young widow looking for love on the Titanian Queen, and of
course trouble follows. There are of
course several detectives on the ship, the most important being Emil Dupont,
who is apparently the greatest detective in the galaxy, but of course is more
of a bumbling idiot while Benny tries to piece things together. There is also a minor character who is a
parody of Miss. Marple, Agatha Magpole, a detective who attracted murderers
which causes her to wear a headdress to stop that from happening. The bodies eventually drop after Benny gets
to the bottom of who the Cat’s Paw is, and why they are not actually the murderer
as they’ve never killed anyone. There is
just something incredibly fun about this dynamic with Benny being surrounded by
people who can’t see through an obvious alibi.
Stone is clearly using it to make fun of the rich, Benny being in the lower-class
role. Yeah she’s a professor and in
academia, but she also faked most of her credentials, that’s a point of her character
that she’s a traveler and having her here makes a great contrast.
The book itself also has some of Stone’s absolute best
prose, giving each chapter a tongue in cheek title referring to one of the
great mysteries or one of the great mystery tropes (or cliches if you prefer). The Cat’s Paw is also a really fun character
once their identity is revealed with the pulp style of the interludes blending
with the more traditional murder mystery pastiche throughout the rest of the
novel. There is also a very small, but welcome,
cameo from Irving Braxiatel, whom I was almost convinced would be behind some
of the goings on, though if that is the case it’s something not revealed in
this book. The elements of the book
involving ARVID feels like a plan from Irving Braxiatel, but isn’t something
that actually happens here with ARVID having a much different duplicitous
nature. Overall, Ship of Fools is
perhaps the perfect title for a book which is all about a ship full of
detectives who really just stumble onto their own solutions. It contains some of Stone’s most accessible,
yet most fun, prose and a story which really gives the general audience a good
point to get what even the standalone Benny books can do. 9/10.
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