Murder On Board

I really must log into Goodreads more as I have just come across this readers review for Murder On Board. Anthony summarised my story far better than I myself have!

Anthony Yvonnica rated it it was amazing

One of the best books I have ever read! The book was a diary of a 50-day cruise. I "L-O-V-E-D" the author's style:

Today we played bridge. Then we had tea. Later I killed a guy. Then we sat and listened to the violinist. Dinner was excellent, especially the lamb.

I have been on cruises and I despise people who stop. When walking through a narrow crowded corridor and the people in front of you just stop walking...... They would be on my list. The lady who is seated with us at dinner, and she sits too close and won't stop yabbering about nothing .... she would be on my list. The author of this book finally dealt with "those" people.

Now the author didn't kill anybody. He simply took a cruise. I'm sure the book stemmed from his thinking how much better his day would be if the woman who reached bare-handed into the buffet food somehow found herself properly chastised.

The book was excellent. I wish I were friends with the author. (less)

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Click here to buy a copy - currently £2.99 for 269 pages of travel, murder and humour.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) the pandemic that stopped the cruise industry in its tracks

I've been taking cruise holidays for many years now and there have always been viruses onboard ships. I've travelled on P&O Cruises and TUI / Marella Cruises and each line takes its responsibilities seriously. It's not unusual, anytime in the past five years to encounter the ships stewards and room staff disinfecting handrails, providing hand sanitizers in the buffet and restaurant entrances. Tissues are often available to open toilet doors and a bin waiting outside to deposit the used tissue in.

The most common bug that occurred was the Novovirus which appeared to break out on every other ship I travelled on. It is also called the winter vomiting bug. It is the most common form of gastroenteritis infection and is characterized by non-bloody diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach pain. Fever or headaches may also be experienced. It normally lasts for between one and three days but given the large number of older passengers board with underlying medical conditions it often took many days longer for those people to recover.  All persons with an illness are confined to their cabin and meals are brought to them until they recover. Ships have medical centres and a ships doctor so the stricken passengers probably visited the centre when they first became ill.

What can also spread illness is the air conditioning systems which transfers air around the ship, particularly to those passengers occupying the inside cabins which by their location do not have windows. Many exterior cabins do have windows but there are not capable of being opened and so they depend on the air conditioning system too.

I last cruised in January this year and was safely home when the stories of cruise ships being refused permission to dock because of the Covid-19 outbreak on board began to circulate. However, what people forget is that many other cruise ships were at sea at that time and had no cases of Covad-19 and safely completed their journeys. The focus tends to be on the bad news stories.

Deaths do occur on cruises as death is just part of life. No one knows when their time will come and people can die for many different reasons other than the coronavirus. However, it is not unknown for passengers to have booked the cruise a year in advance of departure and to join the ship even if they have developed serious medical conditions in the intervening period.

A little known fact is that there are morgues onboard cruise ships and most ships of c70,000 tons and upwards carry morgues capable of holding five or more bodies.

Murder On Board, my book tells the story of deaths on a modern cruise ship for reasons other than the coronavirus. The story follows the action of a murdering pensioner whose driven to actions he may live to regret.

Pick up a copy and join him on his cruise of a lifetime across the Atlantic ocean to the Caribbean islands, the USA and South America. Join him in the Amazon and on a small canoe making his way through the rainforests. Join him as he steps down the plank at every port wondering if he'll be handcuffed on  his return.

Murder On Board - online purchases

Click here for the US Kindle version 

Click here for the UK Kindle version

Click here for the US Paperback version

Click here for the UK Paperback version