Murder on the Waves
About
The pace of the action in this thrilling tale will make your heart pound.
A whodunit mystery of magnificent proportions.
Enjoy the exciting twists and turns of this gripping, edge-of-your-seat drama as Chris and Kate Taylor team up again to stop the killings aboard a luxury cruise ship.
Book One in The Honeymoon Trilogy - The Chris and Kate Taylor Mystery Series
A honeymoon cruise of joy and happiness—or a deadly voyage of violence? Newly married homicide detective Chris Taylor and his bride, attorney Kate Taylor, nee Johnson, are going on a fabulous one-month honeymoon cruise. They will sail on the luxurious Vulcan Orion cruise ship from scenic Auckland, New Zealand, to beautiful Bali, Indonesia.
The intrepid crime-fighting husband and wife duo from Saratoga Springs, New York, encounter not just one - but five - passenger fatalities during their celebratory cruise. Are these deaths tragic accidents, suicides, or homicides?
Vulcan Cruise Line security officer enlists Chris and Kate’s much-needed support in solving these mysterious deaths. One male passenger freezes to death in the popular snow grotto in the ship’s health spa. A successful career woman is thrown violently overboard into the treacherous Tasman Sea, fighting desperately for her life for more than twenty-four hours.
An attractive young gay man is horrifically killed and partially devoured by the infamous and deadly Komodo Dragons on the spooky and dangerous Komodo Island. An executive of a company about to go public dies a tragic, senseless death in the ship’s premier restaurant.
Who or what is behind these seemingly random deaths? Are they related? Is there one killer or several killers aboard the Vulcan Orion? Chris and Kate are stumped until they uncover the one clue that will unravel the identity of the mysterious homicidal maniac in their midst.
This nail-biting whodunnit will have readers on the edge of their seats trying to solve this chilling and complex murder mystery.
Readers will be scratching their heads at the exciting conclusion and wonder how they missed identifying the villains.
Praise for this book
FIVE STARS
Murder on the Waves: A Voyage of Violence by Jimmy Ray Conner is an intricately plotted murder mystery on the high seas. Homicide detective from Saratoga Springs, New York, Chris Taylor has just married high-powered defense attorney Kate. The happy couple is about to embark on a month-long dream honeymoon cruise of the South Pacific, from Auckland to Bali. Also aboard the luxury cruise liner, the Vulcan Orion, is a working team of businesspeople from a medical equipment supply company who are about to launch their company to the public with an Initial Public Offering (IPO). The cruise is a chance for the executives, lawyers, and money people to put the final touches on a deal that will launch the company and make the executives exceedingly wealthy. When there is one death, quickly followed by another and then another, the security officer on board for Vulcan Lines jumps at the opportunity to use Chris and Kate’s extensive legal knowledge to help him unravel the mysterious deaths. Murder on the Waves takes readers on a journey of subtle clues, red herrings, and possible perpetrators, leaving them second-guessing the experts along the way. Author Jimmy Ray Conner has done an exceptional job of balancing a large cast of characters and seamlessly taking us from one arc to the next, encompassing several unexpected and unexplained deaths. I particularly enjoyed that so many potential perpetrators had both the motive and the opportunity to commit the crimes. It is this multiplicity of possible killers that draws the reader into speculation and self-discussion. Any author who can involve readers in a story to the extent that they form conclusions or hypotheses alongside the characters has done an extraordinary job, and this author has achieved it. The setting for the violence and the crimes couldn’t have been a greater contrast to the heinous acts themselves: a luxury cruise around the beautiful South Pacific. The contrast with the subterfuge and conniving going on behind the idyllic scenes of paradise gave the narrative an incredible depth and breadth. I very much appreciated the conclusion, tying up the loose ends and, more importantly, promising readers more adventures with this unusual crime-fighting duo. I enjoyed the story immensely and look forward to the next mystery from this author. I highly recommend this read.