Set Sail For Murder by Carolyn Hart

Set Sail For Murder has a cover that promises a 'cozy' style mystery - a little deduction, maybe a little food, some nice outfits, someone might get knocked off.

Taking place on a Baltic cruise ship, there are a few choice characters in adjoining cabins, simmering family resentments, and the suspense that builds as you know there is no way off the ship - you're trapped with a killer - there is nowhere to run. I am also a fan of the movie Dangerous Crossing starring Jeanne Crain, where she boards a liner with her new fiancé, who promptly vanishes after the boat leaves the dock. Is he hiding, or was there ever a fiancé? No one saw her with him, not the porter or even the maid. She must be losing her mind! I was hopeful this would be a winning people-trapped-on-a-cruise-with-a-killer novel.

Carolyn Hart's writing is fine. Her character, Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins (Henrie O to her friends), is a likable ex-journalist of sixty-five. The characters are entertaining, and I had little clue as to who was causing the drama until the end.

However, for me, there was too much of nothing going on. They traveled, they fought, they visited beautiful Estonia. Carolyn always mentions the outfits they wore and what was for breakfast. But what of the murder?

It takes until page 155 for someone to disappear, presumed to have fallen overboard.

And finally, with just thirty pages left, someone gets killed. The cruise is over, the killer revealed. This was well into the Henrie O series, and perhaps it is more enjoyable when you've been on other mysteries with this detective. A good read, I found it lacking.

2007 / Hardcover / 304 pages