Ardman, Harvey The Final Crossing

A rather silly imagining of the NORMANDIE’s last westbound voyage in 1939 as war is breaking out in Europe. Ardman includes a stellular cast of celebrity passengers — Marlene Dietrich, Sonja Henie(!) and Cole Porter among others — and fills the NORMANDIE’s holds with France’s gold reserves. Then there’s the German bomb planted aboard which must be located and defused by an American secret agent. Did I mention German U-boats in hot pursuit of the glory of France’s merchant fleet? Note that the novel was evidently issued only in paperback.