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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jaine's Cruising for a Murder, April 30, 2009
This review is from: Killer Cruise (Jaine Austen Mysteries) (Hardcover)
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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
amusing amateur sleuth, May 2, 2009
This review is from: Killer Cruise (Jaine Austen Mysteries) (Hardcover)
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
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Usual Felonious Fun, June 8, 2009
This review is from: Killer Cruise (Jaine Austen Mysteries) (Hardcover)
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.
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