The Prince And The Prosecuter (Mark Twain Mystery)

Plot

Working with the great Samuel Clemens isn't a job Wentworth Cabot can turn down, especially when it includes a first-class boat trip, along with a journey to Europe and a steady paycheck. When the two arrive on board the City of Baltimore, the genial company of Clemens's old friend Rudyard Kipling seems to guarantee a smooth, pleasant journey. A German prince, a pretentious Italian artist and a spoiled, drunken, rich young lout from Philadelphia are nuisances to Cabot - but for Twain they only figure as ready targets for his ever-present wit. That is, until the young man from Philadelphia disappears into the ocean. At first he is merely presumed lost at sea - but the man's angry father, a prominent prosecutor, insists that his son was murdered, and that the German prince must be the guilty party! A recent confrontation between the nobleman and the dissolute gambler, witnessed by the crew, certainly seems to establish the nobleman's guilt, as does the fact that this German "royalty" may not be as princely a figure as he pretends. But somehow Mr. Twain suspects that there is more to the matter, and resolves to investigate.