Murder On Board opens your eyes to life onboard modern cruise ships

I wrote Murder On Board, a chapter a day because I wanted the reader to experience the whole sensation of cruising as much as I wanted them to understand what motivated our newly retired pensioner to murder fellow passengers and crew.

People said to me you can't write for both audiences, crime and travel simultaneously but I thought I could and you can read my efforts in Murder On Board.

• I mean who hasn't been curious about taking a cruise to the other side of the world? 
• I mean, aren't the seas bouncing the boat about a lot? 
• Aren't the days at sea boring with nothing to do?
• Isn't the food bland and just a buffet? 
• No one dresses up for dinner anymore, do they?
• And when you get to where you are going you're lucky if they let you go ashore?
• And aren't the excursions extortionately expensive? 

No, no, no, no, no and yes if you take a cruise line organised excursion.

I knew nothing about cruising until 2014 when we experienced our first one and I loved it! I loved the whole experience, particularly the bit that says "the world is brought to you". Wake up today in Venice and tomorrow look out the window and its Dubrovnik outside! The next day its Porto.

I also loved the unpack once. You can holiday all around the Canary Islands or the Azores and then enjoy a few days in the Caribbean before flying home. Fourteen days of golden memories stored away to revisit, at your leisure.

So I  sat down after the most jaw-dropping fifty-day cruise that took in the Azores, the Caribbean, the USA, Mexico and the Canary Islands on the way home, and wrote for days. I hope you will give it a read. It's free currently on Kindle Unlimited and only £2.99 to buy on Amazon so dip your foot in the water and find out what happens on a cruise.


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

Murder On Board - new fiction for 2019

Murder On Board, my new fiction novel is a story of a modern-day cruise liner, the SS Azara, which carries two thousand passengers and eight hundred crew across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States, the Carribean and South America before returning to Southampton, England. The cruise, which lasts a full fifty days, is a holiday of a lifetime for the passengers but for some onboard, it may end up being the final holiday of their lifetime.

Why so?

Well, because on this cruise the average age of passengers is seventy-three years so the Trafalgar Cruises advertisement should not have read Adult Cruise in the byline but more accurately Geriatric Cruise. When people reach this age, life becomes less certain. A percentage, say 2%  of passengers will die from natural causes.  Another 3%  will develop illnesses while onboard as they cope with the rough seas, high humidity and over-indulging in all of life's pleasures.

Lifes Pleasures ?- such as what?

Dinner out, every night for most passengers is a five-course meal. Your average adult when at home would be lucky, to eat out once a week, nay once a month. Fine dining for fifty nights on the trot would test the staying power of young and healthy individuals. Imagine the effect on ancient bowels, intestines and stomachs of the elderly as they take to bed within an hour of eating? Pass the indigestion tablets, please.

It's a well-known fact that alcohol intake is significantly upped on holidays in general and this is particularly encouraged by the cruise lines as they offer drinks packages to accompany the evening meals. The onboard bars are open from early to very late. Duty-free alcohol sales by the shops on board occur regularly throughout the cruise. Once the ship reaches port alcohol is invariably for sale in the harbour and local shops and can be brought back on board and in quantity.

The sun, once the Caribbean has been reached, is well in excess of  25 degrees most days and holidaymakers, particularly the elderly are rather slow to get the message to use sunblock.

What's the plot?
Luke our central character and his wife Margaret are much younger than most of their fellow passengers and this cruise celebrates Luke's retirement. He's not much of a sun-worshipper but he is determined to challenge himself on this cruise. He and Margaret will be joining classes to learn how to play bridge and dance ballroom dancing. Both will be a challenge for Luke but Margaret appreciates his commitment because these are both activities she really enjoys and he has avoided to date.

Little does she realise that in stretching Luke to learn these skills she is jeopardising other passengers lives. 

Amazon UK – 99 Pence/ Cents 

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"Murder On Board"a post from author Mark Rice