Customer Reviews

Killer Cruise (Center Point Premier Mystery (Large Print))

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Jaine has scored herself a working vacation, and she can't wait. In exchange for three one hour classes on memoire writing, she gets a free week vacation on a Holiday Cruise Lines trip down the Mexico coast. With dreams of 24 hour buffets in her head, she sets out.

But things turn disastrous before she even gets on board. On the dock, Jaine discovers that her cat, Prozac, has snuck out of the house. Since the ship won't survive a week with Prozac in quarantine, Jaine has to smuggle the stowaway into her tiny room on the Dungeon Deck (also known as the Paradise Deck, the place where all employees live).

Jaine beings to make friends with her neighbor, Cookie, and her dining companions, the Pritchard family. But every night, the tension at the dinner table seems to build. When a member of this extended group turns up dead, Jaine feels she must find the killer hiding among the passengers. Who could it be?

It's hard to believe we are eight books into this delightful series. And they really have stayed strong. There are several sub-plots that keep things moving while the suspects and motives are developed. After the murder takes place, it becomes the focus with the sub-plots filtering through every so often. But in the entire thing, the pace never lags. I thought I had the killer pegged early on, but I was surprised by the outcome.

With Jaine and Prozac on a ship, the cast of characters is mostly new. But they are still very real. And for fans of the wacky exploits of her parents, don't worry. Their e-mail exchanges are still here and possibly even funnier than normal as they wreck havoc in Los Angeles where they are supposed to be house and pet sitting.

These are very light, breezy books. They make great companions on any trip you may have planned for the summer or beside the pool at home.

Freelance writer Jaine Austen (no descendent of you know who) is thrilled with a week-long Mexican cruise in return for giving a writing class. She should have known better that the oceanic trek from Los Angles would turn horrific from the onset; Prozac her cat hid in her trunk undetected until it was too late to do anything but bring the feline on board. Jaine cuts a deal with Samoa the steward to allow Prozac on board secretly and in return she will edit his 900 page plus thriller manuscript.

Jaine is seated with the Pritchard party whose elderly single matriarch Emily is dancing with gold digging escort Graham Palmer III. He showers her with attention and soon Emily is in love. In spite of his engagement to lounge singer Cookie Esposito, Graham and Emily agree to marry over the objection of her family. Soon afterward, Graham is found dead murdered with a stolen ice-pick. The prime suspect is the dumped Cookie, but Jaine does not believe the singer killed her former fiancé. Jaine investigates with Prozac's help while trying not to fall for Emily's nephew Robbie who makes it clear he wants her.

The latest Jaine Austen amateur sleuth (see KILLING BRIDEZILLA) is a laugh out loud KILLER CRUISE that readers will want to join. Jaine spends much of the time extracting herself from one awkward mess after another. The whodunit is clever and her investigation fun, but what makes this terrific tale refreshingly brisk is Samoa and his tome that has nothing to do with the mystery, but plenty to do with a great read.

Harriet Klausner

Anyone who has been following Laura Levine's charming Jaine Austen mysteries will be pleased to know that Jaine's remarkable feline, Prozac, she of the (as Poe once described his Cattarina) "demure and sanctified demeanor," plays an important role in "Killer Cruise." When Jaine lands what seems like the perfect job--delivering lectures on a luxury cruise ship--her four-legged She Who Must Be Obeyed does her loving best to turn this free vacation into an experience that makes the Titanic look like an advertisement for nautical bliss.

Having brazenly manipulated Jaine into smuggling her onboard, Prozac goes on to involve our heroine in blackmail, sand theft, and serial public humiliation. And that's aside from the ship's resident gigolo turning up with an icepick in his chest. In the end, however, the feline plays a crucial, if indirect role in Jaine's escape from the clutches of a psychopathic killer. Which just goes to prove that you should always have a cat in your life; you never know when they may be called upon to help you play detective.

"Killer Cruise," like the earlier novels in the series, is a delight to read. Fast-paced, genial, and featuring some of the wittiest homicides in the genre, Levine's books are highly recommended to anyone looking for light, but intelligent entertainment.

Jaine Austen, our favorite detective, goes on a free cruise. All she has to do is teach a class in writing. When she gets to the docks, she find out that she has a stowaway, little Prozac, her cat. Since she was running late she has no choice but to take her along. Unfortunately, her steward finds the cat and blackmails Jaine into editing his unusually long and terribly written novel.

That is just the beginning of the fun. Jaine makes constant raids on the buffet to keep up with Prozac's appetite. She meets a dysfunctional family at her assigned dining table and tries to solve a murder. All the while she is trying to start a new romance and to discourage another.

You will love the latest by Laura Levine.

Killer Cruise is the 8th Jaine Austen mystery by Laura Levine.

This time Jaine is off on a all-expenses paid cruise in exchange for teaching a writing class. All plans to attack the 24 hour buffet and sunbake go awry when a dancer is murdered and its Jaine to find the killer before they strike again.

I loved this series from the very first book. Jaine is a delight with her sense of humor and love of chocolate. However I found the previous book (Killing Bridezilla) a little flat. Still I was keen to keep going with the series.

Thankfully I enjoyed this book much more than the previous one. Jaine is funnier than ever with her stowaway cat, Prozac, and her knack to get herself in laugh-out-loud situations is at its best.

The mystery was quite good, with a ending I didn't expect. I definitely recommend to cozy mystery fans that like their mysteries with laughs

Ok, I'll admit it does just make the cut into the mystery genre....but only by a hair. As in many similar books, the mystery is simply an excuse for Girl Stuff and Girl-Boy stuff. Cats, Cats, Cats. In this case, too many cats, is only one. One was sufficient. I got pretty tired of that cat as a motivating force.
So much for the negatives. On the good side is the writing. Light, funny, interesting. Characters. Featured player is good material although carrying too much of the burden of the plot. Supporting players: stock characters for this sort of thing, but they do the job.
All in all, an amusing time filler, suitable for all occasions when a plunge into Conrad or Dostoevsky is just not what one can bear thinking of.
My recommendation: try it and see. After reading this, I have picked up other kindle editions of her work. While she is not in the running for a Noble Prize for Literature, she is playing in the same league as those New York Times Best Selling Authors who sell the same style in mega numbers

if you have not read Jaine Austen series --do it now they are great---just enough comedy and mystery to be great.

Laura Levine has written another entertaining Jaine Austen book. It's a very easy read with a lot of humor and a mystery where you actually get clues and can figure out whodunit.

I do think that the formula is getting a little stale. Something needs to move on in Janie's life, a decent job, a boyfriend. We all know that cats have servants but Prozac takes this to an extreme.

Even with the caveats, this book is a head and shoulders above the rest of the cozy mysteries.

i love jane austen's light hearted mystery series. this book was as playful and entertaining as the others. i would recommend any of them published so far.

I never had a clue who did it and I love that about Levine's books. The only problem I have is that she doesn't write faster so I can read more of her books.