The Floating Admiral

A collaborative detective novel written by fourteen members of the Detection Club. Each author contributed one chapter without knowing the solution planned by any of the previous contributors.

Contents: Introduction / Dorothy L. Sayers — “The three pipe dreams” / G. K. Chesterton — Corpse ahoy! / Canon Victor L. Whitechurch — Breaking the news / G. D. H. and M. Cole — Bright thoughts on tides / Henry Wade — Mainly conversation / Agatha Christie — Inspector Rudge begins to form a theory / John Rhode — Inspector Rudge thinks better of it / Milward Kennedy — Shocks for the inspector / Dorothy L. Sayers — Thirty-nine articles of doubt / Ronald A. Knox — The visitor in the night / Freeman Wills Crofts — The bathroom basin / Edgar Jepson — At the vicarage / Clemence Dane — Clearing up the mess / Anthony Berkeley

Inspector Rudge does not encounter many cases of murder in the sleepy seaside town of Whynmouth. But when an old sailor lands a rowing boat containing a fresh corpse with a stab wound to the chest, the Inspector's investigation immediately comes up against several obstacles. The vicar, whose boat the body was found in, is clearly withholding information, and the victim's niece has disappeared. There is clearly more to this case than meets the eye – even the identity of the victim is called into doubt. Inspector Rudge begins to wonder just how many people have contributed to this extraordinary crime and whether he will ever unravel it.

The authors of this novel are: G. K. Chesterton, Canon Victor Whitechurch, G. D. H. Cole and Margaret Cole, Henry Wade, Agatha Christie, John Rhode, Milward Kennedy, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ronald Knox, Freeman Wills Crofts, Edgar Jepson, Clemence Dane and Anthony Berkeley.