Book Recs: Maiden Voyage by Bradley Harper

Listen, when a book is pitched to me as “Lady thieves on board the Titanic” who is also on board is… moi.

MAIDEN VOYAGE is the latest work from author Bradley Harper, a retired US Army Colonel and pathologist, who has taken up writing at lease one truly wonderful mystery/caper novel with MAIDEN VOYAGE.

The book follows three members of a band of lady-criminals known as The Forty Elephants– Mary Carr, the leader, Sam, and their recent protege, Collette, as they take passage on the most famous fated ship in history in order to hoist a painting by the French master, Blondell. Simultaneously, a Pinkerton agent by the name of Harry Worth has been hired to make sure no one does actually manage the painting off the ship except for the art movers who are responsible to bring it to its purchaser, JP Morgan.

Naturally, Collette and Harry meet and sparks fly. How are they going to heist something on a closed ship? And what are they going to do when catastrophe literally strikes?

The fact that the Forty Elephants really existed had me signing up faster for this book tour than the Carpathia responded to a distress signal (IYKYK). Mary and Sam are lovely, as is the addition of Collette. I appreciated that there was ample “fun and games” at the beginning of the book to show how prepared the women really were for the heist of the century.

Adding in a criminal background for Harry certainly made him deeper than just a Lawman™️ character, and it was nice to get a copper who wasn’t really one. The Pinkertons are a group with a complicated legacy, but it’s leveraged with aplomb here.