Midnight Sailing — Lawrence G. Blochman

On a Japan-bound freighter carrying a wealthy silk heiress, a tide of murder threatens everyone on board -- and a world careening toward a second world war.
 
When a millionaire silk merchant dies from an apparent suicide after being called a Japanese agent during a Senate investigation, his daughter disappears. Trying to avoid the press, Dorothy Bonner sails to Japan on the Kumo-maru. And now, so is foreign correspondent Glen Larkin, hoping to get an exclusive with the woman the whole world is looking for.
 
What Larkin gets is a journey awash with intrigue, thanks to the lovely Dorothy. Traveling with a low profile in second class is a mining engineer, who just happens to be Dorothy's fiancé. A stowaway -- Dorothy's morphine-addicted brother -- is murdered. Also aboard are stolen US Navy anti-aircraft gun blueprints that could implicate Dorothy on conspiracy charges, if anyone can find them. With a passenger list full of suspects and someone taking violent objection to Larkin's professional curiosity, he must match wits with an insurance detective to discover the killer, as the Kumo-maru heads across the ocean to a continent aflame with war . . .
 
“Excellent . . . For the Somerset Maugham trade.” -- Time
 
“The climax is terrific and Blochman knows how to handle this.” -- Manchester Evening News
 
“A good solid mystery with just a whiff of espionage.” -- My Reader's Block