Henry Grave is an investigator for the Association of Cruising Vessel Operators. A World War II P.O.W., Henry is as cunning as he is charming, and at 84 years of age, he fits right in with his fellow passengers. The cruising yacht Vesper is anchored off the Greek island of Thera, in the caldera of an ancient volcano when Henry comes aboard. An Egyptian federal agent was onboard to guard a valuable Minoan cup, but the agent was murdered and the cup, stolen. With the help of a Nicaraguan soap opera star, a New Age spiritualist, and a blind pickpocket, Henry draws on skills honed in a Nazi prison camp to track down a killer who might have his own reasons for taking this particular cruise, reasons unrelated to the sumptuous meals, delightful shipboard activities, and exciting ports of call. 12 million people take a cruise each year. Most have fun. Some die. Henry Grave investigates.
As an archaeologist and a mystery writer, William Doonan is always digging up dirt.
Born in New York, William grew up in New Jersey and Puerto Rico. He received his B.A. in anthropology from Brown University and then studied archaeology at Tulane University, investigating Maya and Central American prehistory. After years of excavations in Honduras and Costa Rica, he received his Ph.D. in 1996.
As a tenured professor of anthropology and archaeology, William has spent the last fourteen years helping students explore the structures and functions of past and contemporary cultures. As an active field archaeologist, he spent summers on Peru's north coast excavating pyramids, mummies, and strange little mud walls.
William is also a veteran cruise ship lecturer, traveling the world on some of the universe's largest floating cities, and speaking on topics as diverse as the Trojan War, Piracy in the Adriatic, and the Peopling of the Americas.
Spending long stretches of time at sea resulted in a keen interest in cruise ship culture - specifically the dynamics of the two separate but intertwined worlds on board; the passengers on one hand, and the staff and crew on the other.
Moving between these two worlds, William began paying attention to cruise ship security, and to the elaborate but often invisible ways in which this unique society manages social control, and responds to crime. This prolonged attention produced the central protagonist of William's cruise ship mystery series - Henry Grave.
Henry Grave is an investigator for the Association of Cruising Vessel Operators. A World War II P.O.W., Henry is as cunning as he is charming, and at 84 years of age, he fits right in with his fellow passengers.
Henry Grave first set sail in 2009 with Grave Passage. He returned to sea in 2011 with Mediterranean Grave. In 2012, Grave Indulgence brought Henry to the scene of a very different sort of crime.
12 million people take a cruise each year.
Most have fun.
Some die.
Henry Grave investigates.
In 2012, Doonan's archaeological mystery American Caliphate was published. Based on Doonan's excavations in Peru, American Caliphate imagines a centuries-old secret hidden under the sand, and a Middle Eastern government intent on making sure that secret stays hidden.
Doonan reimagined Peruvian archaeology in his new supernatural thriller The Mummies of Blogspace9. If you'd like to learn more than you bargained for about demons of antiquity, this is the book for you!
William Doonan lives in Sacramento, CA with his wife Carmen, and his sons Will and Huey. In his spare time, he is learning how to speak Irish.
