L'homme Qui Était Moi

Catalog Note Charles de Richter's *L'Homme Qui Était Moi* (The Man Who Was Me) is a detective novel published in 1933. The narrative opens aboard the merchant vessel *Shalimar*, a modern cargo ship of 4,250 tons commanded by Captain Samuel Mac Grower, a fifty-three-year-old Scottish seaman departing Halifax on December 19, 1931. The ship carries manufactured goods and is bound for the Bermudas and Plymouth. The captain, renowned for his luck and seamanship, maintains strict discipline—reading Scripture daily to his mixed-nationality crew. In Boston, Mac Grower meets Olivier Wendel, an enigmatic landsman of ambiguous social station, shabby and seemingly preoccupied, lingering in a speakeasy. Another captain recommends Wendel as a passenger needing passage. Despite initial misgivings, Mac Grower reluctantly agrees to take him aboard. The narrative suggests Wendel's request carries unexplained urgency and mystery as the ship prepares departure.