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Santa Cruise: A Holiday Mystery At Sea (2006)

Santa Cruise: A Holiday Mystery at Sea (2006)

Book Info

Rating
3.38 of 5 Votes: 3
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ISBN
1416535527 (ISBN13: 9781416535522)
Language
English
Publisher
scribner

About book Santa Cruise: A Holiday Mystery At Sea (2006)

I am normally a devourer of any novel that has Mary Higgins Clark's john hancock attached to it. This one, however, just wasn't one I'd reread. You can tell that Carol Higgins Clark wrote most of the story, it's even a continuation of a series of some of her characters. I just didn't care whether or not I even finished reading it, but went ahead and did so to up my book count for the year.My problems started early. There isn't much mystery at all. You know who did it, why they did it, how they did it, what they even did. You know how they attempt to get away. You know every secret of this novel before you even it a third of the way through. The twist at the end wasn't very surprising and truthfully, if you know anything about mystery novels you seen it coming long before it's even said. There just isn't much mystery to this who-done-it. I gave this book 3 1/2 stars because it truly cold have been more entertaining if some extra work wouldn't been put forth. If Mary Higgins Clark had written this novel herself, it would've had the effort put in it. I've never read a Carol Higgins Clark book before and I just don't think I will again.

In this enjoyable novel the authors take the reader aboard the first voyage of a refurbished old vessel; the occasion is a post-Christmas cruise that is supposed to honor a group of good-doers and offer an opportunity for the ship’s owner to drop his mother’s ashes into the sea. Two stowaways, ten Santas, two little girls strongly determined to help people who don’t want any help and the appearance of a ghost create excitement and commotion aboard the Royal Mermaid. A well-known criminal, hiding under a false identity, has his own agenda as he plays the role of a sick, suffering man. One of the prominent guests of the Santa Cruise, however, is amateur sleuth Alvirah Meehan whose attentive eye soon uncovers clues that lead to the identification of dangerous criminals. Even when her life is in danger, Alvirah manages to recover the precious artifact that was the cause of a long-planned conspiracy. tAll passengers will be able to return safely to the Port of Miami, ready to celebrate the New Year–minus the bad guys, of course.tReview written by Rene Natan, March 29, 2011

Do You like book Santa Cruise: A Holiday Mystery At Sea (2006)?

I bought a copy for 50¢ at a thrift store and read it on the plane home from Amsterdam -- only because I was trapped for 9 hours and had tired of watching movies.This is bad even my cozy standards, and cozies are not meant to be great literature.Every character is stupid and annoying. There is no mystery to the reader, as the identity of the criminals is shown to the reader very early in the book. The plot is built on dozens of near-miss incidents and the characters are stereotyped. Seriously, it was like reading an episode of the Love Boat -- but with less likable people.
—Lisa Shafer

Mary Higgins Clark moves away from some of the more suspenseful shockers such as "Where are the Children" to coauthor with her daughter Carol Higgins Clark this lovely enjoyable tale of a Christmas time voyage. Its a classic Murphy's law - what can go wrong will go wrong! The story about the post-Christmas voyage starts with the self-styled Commodore rambling about his plans and his goals for his just completed refurbished yacht. He plans to run a cruise line, and is using this post-Christmas cruise to jump start his business. To do so, he is going to give gratis a tour to several diverse good-doers and prize winners. Things start going wrong right away, and we get to watch as the locked room mystery, vanishing Santas, and a bad storm mix and mingle the crew and passengers. Add in a ghost and some horrid brats, and the tale is underway. The events lead the crime fighting guests, including bungling amateur sleuth Alvirah Meehan, to stumble into the truth but along the way we are treated to many amusing side trips down comedy lane.
—Doris

MHC is one of my go to authors. Normally she delivers a great mystery read in my opinion. This one however, just was not up to par. Alvirah Meehan won a cruise for people that had done good through out the year. She had her friends the Reilly's (Nora, Luke, Jack, Regan) all join her. This was the maiden cruise for the Royal Mermaid. The Commodore nephew, Eric, had hid two escaped convicts on this ship. Also in the makes is something suspicious going on with Mr. Crater.I just had a very hard time getting into this story--I don't know if it because all the story lines were predictable or if it just was not that appealing---like the blooming romance between Ted and Maggie.So overall, it was an okay story, nothing that exciting as I found it pretty predictable even with reading about Fredericka and Gwendolyn - which they did a good job on making they annoying!
—Elizabeth Noah Astle

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