Spotty, seventeen-years-old, works as a clerk for a ship insurance company in London. He discovers that his supervisor, Basil, has been obsessed with shipwrecks ever since his teenage crush, Elsie, sneaked on the Mary-Celeste, a schooner traveling from New York to London. Spotty decides to help Basil find her.
The ship, which really existed, is one of the greatest mysteries of maritime history: it was found 12 years before our story, sailing all sails off the Azores, but without any passenger on board!
One day, an old sailor barges in the office of our two heroes. He holds a bottle containing the diary of a passenger of this ship... But he refuses to give it to them and when they manage to get their hands on it, they are violently robbed by a bunch of street kids.
The novel alternates between the investigation of the two young men in London, Elsie's logbook until the shipwreck, and flashbacks on the love story between Elsie - a rich heiress - and Basil - the son of a grocer. Until a shattering resolution.
Born in 1974 in Paris, Stéphane Michaka studied literature and theatre in Cambridge (United Kingdom) before leaving to teach French in South Africa. Author of novels and plays, he also wrote adaptations of noted nineteenth century classics for the radio.