Murder on Naked Beach (Lucy Ripken Mysteries) [Paperback]

J. J. Henderson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lucy Ripken Mysteries | Publication Date: February 7, 2006

30-something, single, and struggling to make it as a photographer in New York City, she's smart, tough, and fiercely protective of her friends and her privacy. Lucy wants to meet the right guy, but she's got to be free for a life of travel and adventure, and she finds both in Murder on Naked Beach, the first novel of this sizzling new mystery series.

It's the ugly side of winter in Manhattan and Lucy is itching to escape to a warmer climate. She manages to talk her way onto a press junket to Jamaica to photograph a posh new resort. Once her photo shoot is done, she'll have plenty of time left for windsurfing and catching up with her traveling companions. Instead, Lucy finds one of them dead in the hot tub on the resort's little island, known as Naked Beach. Although everyone claims the writer died of a heart attack, Lucy smells mischief and is determined to find out what really happened. But her curiosity leads her way off Jamaica's beaten tourist path, and straight into danger, drug smuggling, and the bed of an undercover DEA agent.

With Murder on Naked Beach, author J.J. Henderson introduces us to a sassy and sexy new sleuth in this suspenseful and sharply funny novel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jumping at the chance to leave slushy New York for sunny Jamaica, 30-something design journalist Lucy Ripken promptly sticks her nose into a death that no one else seems to think is murder (though of course it is). Soon Lucy is tangled up in a massive drug deal involving several of her less savory press-junket companions. Somewhere in there she falls for Harold Ipswich, mild-mannered reporter by day and DEA agent by night, who seems rather boring and has a disconcerting habit of encouraging Lucy to break the law. Fortunately, he has the advantage of being the only decent human being on the island other than the uniformly friendly and laid-back Rastafarian natives, whose favorite pastime is feeding Lucy plot-advancing information. First-time novelist and former journalist Henderson never passes up an opportunity to skewer her compatriots in the press corps or devote pages to the joys of architecture photography, leaving characterization and plot as thin as one of Lucy's swimsuits. Hopefully, she'll reshuffle her priorities before further developing the series.
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Review

"Murder on Naked Beach," just out from first-time novelist and Seattle resident J.J. Henderson, is a pretty good one. -- The Seattle Times, Feb 22, 2006

"Travel writer Henderson's series kickoff shows promise, a terrific premise, great local color and an appealing cast..." -- Kirkus, December 15, 2005

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 274 pages
• Publisher: CDS Books (February 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593152876
• ISBN-13: 978-1593152871
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,078,202 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Justin here. I've been writing all kinds of books for a long time now, through years in LA growing up, then the 80s in New York, the 90s and 00s in Seattle, and now, here in Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico. I live here with my beautiful wife, Donna Day, and our smart, charming, princess of a daughter Jade. I do a lot of surfing these days, and watch the tropical birds in the mango trees across the vacant lot.

When I was in New York, I worked as an architectural journalist, and eventually wrote a bunch of books about interior design and architecture. I also did some traveling as a journalist, and it was on one of those trips that I found the inspiration for Lucy Ripken, my amateur mystery sleuth. Lucy is a hybrid of Donna and me, a semi-tough-talking contemporary "broad" with a heart of gold and a loft in SoHo. Not unlike the one Donna and I lived in until we fled for the less stressful environs of Seattle in 1991. In Seattle I kept on writing all kinds of books, and as was my habit, hanging around music venues. Eventually that turned into another book, called Grunge Seattle, a kind of cultural travel guide to Seattle in the early 90s.

After the first Lucy Ripken, I wrote six more. They are all available at Amazon, as are the architecture and design books. These days I spend a lot of time riding waves, and writing about surfing among other things. You can check out my surfing column here: http://www.elsayulero.com/channel/44/stories. And the books are all sitting on the electronic shelf. Have a look. See you in the waves.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst Vacation Ever!, February 21, 2006

By 

On The Road "Dave" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder on Naked Beach (Lucy Ripken Mysteries) (Paperback)

This is a travel writer's dream come true of press junket mystery in the caribbean. Unfortunatly for a lay person this holds no fascination what so ever. What happens to Lucy Ripken is nothing more than some wistful daydreams of someone who wished something more was happening when nothing really is.
The premise starts off weak as Lucy is in the airport preparing to leave New York in the middle of the cold winter and head to the warm tropics to see a new hotel. The excruciating detail about waiting to leave the airport is to be missed by anyone who has ever flown on a plane.
Next we are in the warm tropics and it's nothing a second grader couldn't have told us about. But then wait, a man dies out on the nude beach and for some reason the girl that finds him is all freaked out about it and leaves the island to go home early. So for some reason it is apparent to all that he just had a heart attack in the hot tub, but to our would be sleuth, certainly there must be Murder on Naked Beach!
The book countinues like this for some time alternating between psuedo mystery novel and a dsescriptive narritive from a travel pamphlet.
This is a dull read that is more work than pleasure and I would advise not to book this trip.


Happy Reading

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor beginning and no ending, October 6, 2008

By 

Reads Thrillers (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder on Naked Beach (Lucy Ripken Mysteries) (Paperback)

The beginning and the ending chapters are the most important chapters in a book. This beginning was a rambling about a woman waiting in an airport to fly on a junket to Jamaica. There was no ending. The author should have ended this book instead on leaving it open for a beginning for a future book. I suspect a previous one star review for this book is the only honest review. All the five star reviews must have been from friends of the author.

On my last novel, al-Qaeda Strikes Again, based on early reviews, I completely rewrote the beginning so that a body was discovered on the first page. I wrote four endings and had early reviewers comment on which was the best and used that in the published book.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Problem, Mon, May 25, 2007

By 

ajah "ajah" (Santa Monica, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder on Naked Beach (Lucy Ripken Mysteries) (Paperback)

Once again the sharp tongued, sharp witted Lucy Ripken gets to the bottom of the mystery with her unique blend of personal flare and nosiness. On assignment photographing a new resort in Jamaica, Lucy stumbles upon murder, drugs and, possibly love. Lucy Ripken's fun-to-read adventures are filled lush and vividly detailed locations (no doubt inspired by Henderson's travel writings) and peppered with colorful secondary characters, but the real cornerstone is Luce herself. A plucky, strong-willed modern heroine with a realist job and personality, Lucy is immediately likeable and accessible. Her courage and no-nonsense demeanor are quite admirable, and her insights fill an already fun read with dark humor and appeal.