On 15th March 1878, Lord Littleby, an English eccentric and collector, is found murdered in his Paris house together with nine members of his staff. A gold whale is found in the victim's hand — a badge owned only by first class ticket-holders on the maiden voyage of the Leviathan, the world's largest steamship.

Commissioner Gauche of the French police is called to solve the 'Crime of the Century' and narrows the suspects down to ten, who are forced to eat every meal together in the ship's Windsor Suite, Amongst these ten is the elegant young Erast Fandorin. Can he discover the murderer's identity before Gauche?

' Just occasionally an audiobook sends me straight out to buy every single one of
the author's works... William Hootkins's deep, rich voice kept me spellbound ,' wrote Christina Hardyment in The Times of the first Fandorin novel, The Winter Queen 'Fandorin is a beautifully drawn character who more than lives up to comparisons with Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes ' — Daily Express

'Akunin writes "with such intelligence, humour and panache that the reader becomes his ally... he must now have enough allies to populate a medium-sized country' — Independent

William Hootkins made his feature film debut in StarWars . Other major films include Batman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, A River Runs Through, Funny Bones, Hear My Song, The Omega Code and The Magnificent Ambersons . Stage work includes a season at the Chichester Festival Theatre, and amongst his many other audio books is Moby Dick .