Ransom at Sea: A Ransom/Charters Mystery [Hardcover]

Fred Hunter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2003

With a relaxing few days in mind, Miss Emily Charters signs up for a four-day seniors’ cruise of the Great Lakes organized by her church. In the company of her friend and housekeeper, Lynn Francis, Charters and the other seniors set sail from Chicago, but while the waters on the lake are calm and predictable, her fellow passengers are not. However, a little tension is the least of the problems when one of her fellow passengers is found horribly murdered in her cabin.

While the police investigate, the ship remains at port, leaving Emily stranded until her friend, Chicago Police Detective Jeremy Ransom, comes to her rescue. Together they set out to solve a most perplexing puzzle of a murder committed without seeming opportunity or plausible reason, not mention right under Emily’s nose

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Emily Charters and her detective pal, Jeremy Ransom, have their seniors' Great Lakes cruise aboard the Genessee rudely interrupted by murder in Fred Hunter's Ransom at Sea: A Ransom/Charters Mystery, the ninth entry in this reliable semi-cozy series (after 2002's The Mummy's Ransom). This book's a natural companion for a holiday cruise.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Although he sets the ninth Charters and Ransom caper on the small ship Genesse, chartered for a four-day "preseason" Lake Michigan cruise by a Chicago senior-citizens group, Hunter proves not in the least adrift. Amateur sleuth Emily Charters, accompanied by her much younger friend Lynn Francis, surveys the cast of characters as they board at Navy Pier, which is just as well, because more than a dozen of them, plus the crew, makes for plenty of suspects when a querulous old woman with Alzheimer's disease, who is traveling with her niece, Rebecca, is murdered in her cabin. Enter Chicago police detective Jeremy Ransom at the octogenarian Emily's request, for she has misgivings about local police suspicion of Rebecca, and she is usually right. What about the victim's startling scream at "sighting" a man in her room on the first night out of Chicago? And what of the furtive stranger who keeps popping up in port after port? All aboard for an entertaining mystery. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (April 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312300662
• ISBN-13: 978-0312300661
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,735,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars classic investigative tale, April 15, 2003

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Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ransom at Sea: A Ransom/Charters Mystery (Hardcover)

Chicago senior citizen Emily Charters takes her grieving friend Lynn Francis on a Great Lakes cruise to help the younger woman cope with the recent death of her lesbian lover. On board the same ship is nasty and dictatorial Marcella Hemsley who has no qualms at being the queen of mean and abusing her reticent companion, her young niece Rebecca. Surprisingly since she seems to still be grieving her loss, Lynn finds herself attracted to Rebecca. Perhaps as shocking, Rebecca responds, at least to the friendliness offered especially by Lynn but Emily too.

However, someone murders Marcella whose corpse is found in her cabin. The police arrest Rebecca who had motive and opportunity. Unable to resist especially since Lynn is interested, Emily begins investigating. Helping her is police detective Jeremy Ransom, her partner on several other cases.

RANSOM AT SEA is a classic investigative tale that runs the inquiry gamut but is at its best while the lead couple interviews potential witnesses and suspects. The who-done-it story line dominates the tale as the elderly Emily and her junior "colleague" question an amusing ensemble to uncover who actually killed the offensive victim. Lynn's sexual preference is not hidden and handled with dexterity by Fred Hunter, as he provides a delightful mystery that readers will appreciate.

Harriet Klausner