Author Reading "Murder On Board"

Special Pre-Order price - 99p/99c for a limited time only!
Link - https://geni.us/FxaA8

Releasing on 2nd May 2019 via Junction Publishing

Take a chance on this maritime crime thriller.

New 2019 crime fiction novel available for limited period on pre-order

New 2019 Crime Fiction

Murder On Board is a crime fiction novel which is bursting with incidents that will grab your attention from the very first page.

On page one you will meet Luke and his wife in their hotel room on the morning they fly to join their cruise of a lifetime. They have a challenging timetable of buses, planes, trains and taxi’s which all have to work seamlessly to enable them to make the 5.00pm sailing from Southampton.

Outside their Dublin, Ireland hotel, at 7.30 am, on a January morning, the barometer is struggling to touch zero degrees but in their minds, they are already in holiday mode, focused on the balmy 25 degrees they will encounter in the Caribbean.

This is a transatlantic cruise where they will cross the Atlantic Ocean both coming and going home. That in itself is a challenge as the ship will encounter 5 days of stormy weather before they reach the Azores and another 5 days before they reach Bermuda. Fortunately, the cruise is a fifty-day voyage so there will be plenty of time to get a tan, visit the odd World Heritage site, pop into Cape Canaveral, travel up the Everglades and up the Amazon River.

Oh, and learn a new skill, bridge, ballroom dancing or painting.

Don’t people die as well?

Well, yes they do, but I don’t want to put any of you, prospective travellers, off taking a cruise, with stories of deaths on board. It happens. People die everywhere, in toilets, at home in bed, driving cars, at work. Death is just another part of living. There is a morgue on board, which is rather full at the moment.

So there isn’t a murderer on board?

Now I didn’t say that did I? Did I?

There may well be one on board but please don’t spread it around. There are 2,000 passengers and 800 crew on board and the last thing we want is to instil panic.

Remember this is a holiday of a lifetime for this geriatric group of passengers. Please don’t ruin it for them by telling them about a murderer who is killing people.

Just keep that stiff British lip buttoned and just enjoy the cruise. Let’s face it you can’t get off! We are 3 days from land.

Murder On Board by Mark Rice is on a Special Pre-Order price - 99p/99c
Please follow this Link - https://geni.us/FxaA8 to avail of this limited offer.

Releasing on 2nd May 2019 via Junction Publishing

"Murder On Board" by Agatha Christie and Mark Rice

Agatha Christie’s publishers released "Murder On Board", a book of the same name, back in 1974 which was a compilation of three of Agatha Christie's mystery novels, The Mystery of the Blue Train, Death in the Air and What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw!

In the “Mystery of The Blue Train” published in 1928 we find that if Hercule Poirot had not been on the luxury boat-train from London to the Riviera, the murder of a beautiful young woman would have gone un-avenged, the disappearance of the fabulous rubies would have remained unsolved, and one of the most diabolically clever conspiracies of the era would have succeeded.

“Death in the Air” published in 1935 twenty-one passengers were flying across the English Channel. In the rear of the cabin a woman, her head lolling forward, seemed to be asleep, but she was dead. Madame Giselle a money-lender, a blackmailer was a woman with a past and had been murdered. And the crime had been committed in Mr Poirot's presence by one of the occupants of the aeroplane.

In “What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw” published in 1957 Mrs McGillicuddy insisted that she had seen a murder take place from her train window. Unlike “Girl On a Train”, written by Paula Hawkins, where the murder occurred in a house backing onto the rail line, in Agatha Christies novel the murderer is a man, standing in a compartment of a train running parallel with her train. 

There is no “Murder On Board” mystery novel at all until now that is!

The novel “Murder On Board” is being published by Junction Publishing with a release date of May 2019 and the title is a perfect fit for what the book is about. Readers will join Luke and his wife on the cruise of a lifetime which is memorable for all the wrong reasons as passengers die and tensions rise. The cruise is a long one, 50 days and covers thousands of miles of ocean even venturing up the Amazon River. The passengers enjoy life on board and excursions ashore but are kept in the dark about certain, life-terminating events.

You can pre-order this new Irish crime fiction novel now for 99p!

Cruise passengers on deck and sunbathing

There is a book to be written about this topic alone. Passengers are fine and rule-obeying until the sun appears and then the sun lounger war commences. On transatlantic cruises is probably on day 5 and you have just sailed away from the Azores that the sun makes an appearance on winter cruises.

The truth of the matter is there is not a sun lounger for every passenger on board. Just isn’t.

So people resort to desperate measures to get a pair of sun loungers and have them placed in a sunny position. I believe it is generally the female partner who orders the act and the male obedient partner who sets off at as early as, wait for it......3.00 am to untie a pair of stacked loungers and relocate them on the deck to the favoured position. He then leaves them decorated with his own blue towels, sets of giant bulldog clips and some personal effects until they have eaten their breakfast. Only then will they return ready for a day of sunbathing.

Just occasionally the bagging of sun loungers backfires when a heavy downpour of rain at 8.00 am saturated the early riser’s towels and personal effects they’d left out on the loungers at the crack of dawn. An instance of natural justice I suppose.

Another antisocial passenger action is to squeeze sun loungers into spaces there really is no room for another pair of sun loungers to fit. What happens then is the pathways become so blocked that you can’t get to the swimming pool without weaving your way through a sun lounger maze.  Forward two steps, backward one step, sideways four steps and back off and start again!

You see, most sun loungers are only used for four or five hours max as passengers have activities to go to, meals to eat, shops to visit and shows to attend but once bagged they are held until sundown or at least until the sun moves around so that the lounger is now in shadow.  Generally, about 4.30 pm the loungers are vacated and the crew begin the job of stacking them away for the night.

Sunbathing and getting badly burnt seem to go hand in hand for many passengers. I saw a guy with a red burnt back so vivid that I had to shield my eyes from the glare. Yet he was ignorant of the state of his back. Surely one of his group of pals would have told him to cover up or step inside for a while? It’s amazing how burnt grown-up adults can get. How they underestimate the power of the sun despite living on the planet earth for 50 + years beggars belief.

Read more about life on board a modern cruise ship in “Murder On Board” (available on pre-order from 5th February 2019). This is my latest novel and available now at 99 cents or pence. 

The ship left harbour with 2,899 souls for a 50-day cruise but will be returning with significantly less. Could it be because the average age of the passengers is 73 and shit happens, old people die? 

Maybe it's because the ship is sailing 1,000 miles up the Amazon River with its precious cargo of geriatric guests placing them in an area of 100% humidity?

Or maybe it's because the Amazon River is home to the Zeka virus and the ship is sailing towards millions of female mosquitoes just waiting to attack its passengers?

Or is it simply because a killer is loose amongst them!

"Murder On Board" goes on pre-order

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Murder On Board my new crime fiction thriller goes on pre-order today and at a special Pre-Order price of  99p/99c.  Please follow this link to avail of this price - https://geni.us/FxaA8

It is scheduled for release on 2nd May 2019 via Junction Publishing.

Holidays bring out the best and worst in people. Taking an adult only cruise holiday to the sunny Caribbean in mid-winter seemed a great idea.

What could go wrong?

Join Luke and his wife on the cruise of a lifetime which is memorable for all the wrong reasons as passengers die and tensions rise.

New Crime Fiction for 2019

Cruise passengers behave badly at theater

Theatre on board

Most cruise ships of any medium to large size will have a twice-nightly show in the ship’s theatre. The theatre capacity is usually up to one thousand passengers and the show is performed twice each night so that the two thousand passengers will have the opportunity to see the show. 

Since the formal evening dinners are normally served with an early, 6.30 pm and a late 8.30 pm sittings it makes sense that the theatre’s shows commence at 8.30 pm and 10.30 pm.  However, on most adult cruises the average passenger age could be 75 and therefore most passengers will want to eat early and see the early show and be tucked up in bed by 10.30 pm. So the pressure for seats at the first show is usually great. You can ask the restaurant manager to put your name down to change to the early sitting but it’s rare that he’ll be contacting you with good news.

For the theatre shows passengers can really aggravate other passengers by the following behaviour:

1.       The woman who holds six seats when the rules clearly state you cannot reserve or hold seats.  She continues to block them as the show starts and despite repeated questions from other seat-less passengers. Finally 10 minutes into the show she relents and releases the seats.

2.       The pair of inebriated loud talking blokes that sit right behind you and fitfully take an interest in what’s going on, on the stage. Their conversation and stupid jokes will drive you round the bend and will drown out the show.

3.       Late arriving passengers who force everyone in your row to stand up so they can get to their seats and then they loudly summon a waiter to place an order and then need to go to the toilet six times during the show.

4.       The guy who has a heart attack and slumps in his seat and stops the show. OK – scratch that one. He couldn’t help himself or could he? Was he poisoned by my murderer or maybe just overindulged on an all expenses cruise? You’ll have to read the book to find out!

Read more about life on board a modern cruise ship in “Murder On Board” (available on pre-order from 5th February 2019). This is my latest novel. The ship left harbour with 2,899 souls for a 50-day cruise but will be returning with significantly less. 

Could it be because the average age of the passengers is 73 and shit happens, old people die? 

Maybe it's because the ship is sailing 1,000 miles up the Amazon River with its precious cargo of geriatric guests placing them in an area of 100% humidity?

Or maybe it's because the Amazon River is home to the Zeka virus and the ship is sailing towards millions of female mosquitoes just waiting to attack its passengers?

Or is it simply because a killer is loose amongst them?  

Cruise formal dining has deadly drawbacks

Self Service restaurant

If you have booked the cruise with a set dining time and an agreement to share with up to six other passengers then you will be sitting down to dinner every night with those six individuals. Your only escape is to pass on the formal waiter served five-course dinner in the main restaurant and pay to eat at one of several extra dining restaurants or go to eat in the self-service restaurants onboard which are free.

My character Luke and his wife Margaret booked an early dinner at 6.30 pm with six complete strangers. Their cruise duration was fifty nights. Can you imagine just how stressful that could have been if nobody got along or nobody made an effort at conversing over the interminable five-course meal each night?

I have sat and watched such a table of four who sat facing each other, in complete silence, night after night.  The two couples didn’t even bother to talk to each other much less the pair who sat stony-faced opposite them! Each night they sat in perfect silence for two hours before rising and going their separate ways.

We booked a table for four on our first cruise and sat there at 6.25 pm looking at our watches and the empty seats opposite us. Who would they be and what type of life have they lived were just two of many questions bubbling around our minds as we waited. Would they be young or old?  experienced cruisers or a couple taking their first cruise? As the minute's ticked by we gradually began to realise that there was no other couple. So for the rest of that cruise, we sat down every night with our absent partner’s empty seats opposite us.

If you booked a table for two you could just find your own conversation drying up after 50 nights. Often the table for two’s is located close to other tables for two’s so there is every chance that you’ll spark up conversations with other couples in the same predicament. 

Read more about life onboard a modern cruise ship in “Murder On Board” (available on pre-order from 5th February 2019). This is my latest novel. The ship left the harbour with 2,899 souls for a 50-day cruise but will be returning with significantly less. 

Could it be because the average age of the passengers is 73 and shit happens, old people die? 

Maybe it's because the ship is sailing 1,000 miles up the Amazon River with its precious cargo of geriatric guests placing them in an area of 100% humidity?

Or maybe it's because the Amazon River is home to the Zeka virus and the ship is sailing towards millions of female mosquitoes just waiting to attack its passengers?

Or is it simply because a killer is loose amongst them?  


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