When Lady Swift embarks upon her first luxury cruise she imagines a gilded ballroom, afternoons on deck taking tea and all the delectable food she can eat. But she can’t seem to escape from murder…

Lady Eleanor Swift is all set to spend her birthday with her beau, dashing Detective Hugh Seldon, until he calls to cancel on her again at the last minute. What’s a girl to do? Pack up her staff and her faithful old bulldog, Gladstone, and head off on a cruise to New York, that’s what!

On the stunningly opulent ocean liner Celestiana, Eleanor tries to forget her worries and make the most of her trip. That is, until she sees a man being shot and falling overboard. On closer inspection of the scene, Eleanor literally stumbles over the likely murder weapon. And the nick in the barrel is unmistakable: this gun belongs to Detective Seldon…

With some discreet digging, Clifford discovers Detective Seldon is aboard the ship on an undercover mission. Eleanor doesn’t want to make waves but she’s sure that something fishy is going on and he’s being framed. To get Seldon off the hook, Eleanor casts her net wide and searches for the real murderer among a sea of suspects including European nobility, Italian opera stars, and American nouveau riche. But does the victim’s expensive gold ring point to a lavish lifestyle or is it a red herring?

When another passenger is found dead in his first-class cabin, a poisoned whisky glass clutched in his hand, Eleanor realizes they are really in hot water. Will the killer be Eleanor’s catch of the day, or will she spend her birthday at the bottom of the sea?

A totally charming, unputdownable Golden Age mystery with characters readers will adore. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey, and Lee Strauss.

Favorite Quotes:

‘I’ve met some hard-boiled eggs before—’ ‘But he’s the full ten minutes.’

I just wanted to say as how we’ve been walking up and down the decks like grand people and… and taking tea in a proper dining room with people waiting on us! ’Tis like a naughty dream, your ladyship. But real.

My Review:

I have relished each and every installment of this entertaining series. The writing is easy to follow yet the mysteries are always confounding and difficult to solve, proving me wrong almost every time. The recurring characters are endearing and populate storylines that sparkle with wit, wry humor, clever observations, and villains that are complete rotters. This adventure occurred on an opulent ocean liner with scenes that were lushly depicted and vividly described while still remaining true to the period. I was contemplating booking a cruise for myself until they fell on harsh conditions. Terra firma now seems more appealing than ever.

About the Author

Because You Said Yes
(A Willow Bay Novel Book 3)
by Kelly Collins

ABOUT KELLY COLLINS   

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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Then she looks inside the silverware drawer. Several girly magazines are thrown in with the forks and spoons. Not surprising to find porn in a man’s cabin in the woods. They need some kind of entertainment, because God forbid they neglect their penises for a couple of hours.

Time has a way of dulling memories, smudging the sharp edges of tragedy, smoothing out the vivid images in order for a person to go on living. She supposes what she’s feeling now, sitting here, is a kind of quiet reflection. It doesn’t mean she forgets the sacrifices that were made or the lives that were lost.

My Review:

I was transfixed on my Kindle while reading this gripping, brutal, horrifying, and haunting story. I rarely read such tragic, gruesome, or violent tales but the storytelling was simply stellar and oddly captivating while told from multiple points of view with expert handling of the interior narratives of the devastatingly fractured characters. I was taut with tension, enthralled, anxious, intrigued, and growing increasingly fretful as their stories unfolded and tragedies compounded. Karen Katchur is an evil genius, her neighbors should tread quietly and carefully.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

It was weird that we were joking around a minute ago, and now we were witnesses to this loss of life and serious moment. My moral compass was pointing a big guilty arrow at my chest, and I felt ashamed for staring.

Axle was shy with girls and a nine on the one-to-ten immature scale.

I was facing another sleepless night. I had yet to climb down from stress mountain.

My Review:

I’m late to the party as this is book number three for Delaney, the designer heels shoe obsessed tow truck driver, but it was my introduction to the series and its crafty creator Karen C. Whalen. I enjoyed her writing style, it was breezy, easy to follow, and laced together with humorous yet insightful observations and inner musings. There was more than one mystery to solve and I wasn’t anywhere close in my personal attempts at sleuthing, looks like I’ll have to stick to reading about such adventures, wearing flats, and driving my Prius.

The Darlings
by Vera Jane Cook

Amazon  / B&N / Apple  / BB

 

The Darlings are drowning in illusions within the serenity and tranquility of a small southern town. Secrets shatter the everyday world of Deborah Darling as the truth evades her. Deception, revenge, and the peculiarities of sexuality lead to the shattering of life’s most precious bonds. Behind the veil of what we think we know, everything we don’t know lies bare.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Why, her Barnaby could talk the devil into quoting the Bible and lining the pathway to heaven with gold.

His mother always made him laugh, not necessarily when she was present but when he thought of her in hindsight. She reminded him of some cartoon character who said outrageous things and had no idea she was being ignorant or prejudiced, that her thoughts were simply outrageous. His mother had no idea that she appeared ignorant.

None of these drag queens are ugly… Why is that, they’re really men? Men who look like men underneath all that makeup, men with face stubble and jock straps.

It’s not that Deborah didn’t know her daughter, she simply didn’t want to know the many facets of her. Deborah’s picture of Robbie’s life was like a PG-rated television script in which her daughter was completely one-dimensional. Problem was, the real script of Robbie’s life was R-rated, much more complex than Deborah could have ever imagined.

Southern ladies do not raise their fists in rage. The urge to drive her car into the pristine white front porch until nothing was standing but the splinters of its former glory almost won, but she would not tarnish her Cadillac for the indiscretions of that tawdry, cheap woman.

My Review:

This has been my initial exposure to the deft and crafty word voodoo of Vera J. Cook and I am kicking myself for not noticing her work sooner, it was deviously clever and wryly witty. The woman has mad skills! Once I queued up my beloved Kindle I was sucked into an oddly and deliciously compelling vortex that was populated by an unusual collection of wealthy and privileged Southern hypocrites, eccentrics, and small-town quirks. I was bewitched, captivated, and fascinated by the complexity and multiple layers of secrets and scandalous activities that had prevailed in this tiny berg for such an extended period of time.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

There’s something about that story. I can’t explain it. It opened me up. Maria said the same thing. It was like being unfolded from the inside out, so the love could seep in.

“My gift? Gabby, the only thing I’m gifted at is quitting. I have a preternatural talent for giving up.” Gabby frowned. “All the more reason not to quit now. And for the record, I’ve never believed that about you. It’s just an excuse you’ve been telling yourself for years so you don’t have to pursue anything challenging.” She was a clever one, that Gabby. If Alice turned her down now, she’d be proving Gabby right.

Most people’s problems, Alice was beginning to discover, were pretty obvious. Everyone thinks they’re hiding their pain, their insecurities, their struggles. Really, most people are just so focused on their own issues that they aren’t particularly observant of others. If you stop for a second and look, really investigate someone, they unfold before you like a book. Most people, at least.

“Blame is its own form of grief.” Madeline scratched at the scar on her cheek. “It’s easier to feel guilty than to admit you’re helpless.

Do you always eat sandwiches like that?” … “Like you’re afraid of them. Like that—” he pointed to the piece she’d ripped off and was about to eat. “The entire point of a sandwich is that you can just take a bite.” He gnawed at his baguette like it was a turkey leg at a Renaissance fair.

He was tall and thin, with warm brown skin and a head so bald it shone. His chin was hidden by a neatly trimmed beard with a white patch shaped like a heart. When he caught Alice staring, he rubbed his palm against the spot. “Some people wear their hearts on their sleeves. I wear mine on my face.”

My Review:

Rereading the vast plethora of highlighted passages I saved during perusal reminded me of just how cleverly insightful and intricately nuanced this novel was. Amy Meyerson is such a nimble raconteur, I kept marveling at the creativity and vibrant details of the brain-snagging and mind-prickling scenes her words conjured. I was sucked into an oddly compelling vortex that kept me a bit on edge yet unable to look away for fear of missing a crumb. I felt on unsteady ground throughout the journey, and can’t remember the last time I enjoyed that peculiar unsettling feeling more.