Wealthy Beverly Hills socialites, Brian and Sylvia Sinclair, are celebrating their 25th Anniversary on a cruise from London to New York on the luxurious QEII. Joining the couples joyous excursion is their rebellious daughter and her controlling husband, their scheming son and his wily girlfriend, six of their longtime friends, and a surprise person from their past. Also on board is private eye Richard Manning, who volunteers to investigate when a member of the party dies an unnatural death. Manning’s search reveals dark secrets and everyone becomes a suspect. Ferreting out the truth is a daunting challenge, and time is short – once the ship reaches New York, the parties will scatter, making it almost impossible for authorities to solve the case. Will Manning figure it in time? Follow him on his quest to unmask the killer this captivating mystery.
- ASIN : B0725Y7L5P
- Publisher : Casandras (May 24, 2017)
- Publication date : May 24, 2017
- Language : English
- File size : 530 KB
- Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 252 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 0991194020
Michael P. Hartnett –
A Fun and Clever Mystery
Murder aboard the Queen Elizabeth II by Stephen Murray is a stylish and entertaining who-done-it with well-developed characters who imbue the mystery with greater resonance. The murder doesn’t occur until halfway through the novel, enough time for Murray to establish the dynamics among competing characters and their motivations.
Even before the actual murder, many sly hints and clues are dangled with an assortment of tawdry relationships and a bagful of secrets that emerge from Alicia, Todd, Laura, Denise, and just about every member of the party. The planner of the anniversary cruise, Sylvia, serves as the heart of the novel; her aversion to confrontation helps advance the numerous plot threads. By the time the victim is dead, the reader has so many suspects established in his mind, that he is more than ready for the investigation that follows.
And that investigation, led by retired private eye Richard Manning with the ship’s captain serving as a congenial sidekick, continues to unearth further sniping and suspicious behavior from the suspects. Manning’s probing questions and intuitive leaps in interrogation heighten the suspense, and Murray’s shifts in perspective back to the suspects allow for the possibilities for who might be involved in the murder to continually expand.
Murder aboard the Queen Elizabeth II offers so many nice twists – almost every character seems to be working an angle – that the revelation of the murderer is particularly satisfying. Murray has delivered to the reader a very pleasurable and diverting novel.
Linda Thompson, Host of The Authors Show –
An Enjoyable Mystery I Could Not Put Down
The Sinclair’s are a couple you love to hate. Brian is a pompous womanizer and wife Sylvia is so caught up in being “proper” she forgets how to feel. When they decide to take a cruise aboard the QEII to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, all hell breaks loose and all not only do their true colors come out, but so do those of their guests. Dirty little secrets are revealed and that’s what makes it so much fun. Murray’s depiction of these people speaks of a knowledge of the proper English socialite and of high brow society. His descriptive writing wraps you into the lifestyle of these characters and leaves you wondering how you got there. I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to hearing more from this gifted author.
Judy M. –
Murder at its best
I truly loved this book. First of all, the murder does not take place right away, so you meet most of the characters. You are kept guessing who is was going to be murdered and then who did it! Very well written. Kept my attention all the way to the very end.
A. Hopkins –
I am glad that I kept reading
Stephen Murray’s Murder Aboard the Queen Elizabeth II was an exciting murder mystery. There were twists and turns during the whole thing. While the beginning of the story was a little slow, I am glad that I kept reading. I was pulled in and wanted to know, first who was murdered followed by who did it and why.
Moving past the very beginning, this murder mystery has it all. The main couple, the Sinclair’s. I loved to get to know them, but was not impressed with the Mr. Sinclair and his choices of cheating. When Mrs. Sinclair decides she wants to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary aboard the QEII,
Now, to add to the twists and turns, Mrs. Sinclair wants to invite their friends, some of who are business associates with Mr. Sinclair, as well as their son, his flimsy girlfriend and their estranged daughter and her husband. You can’t have drama without a fun group of people!
Between everyone who is invited, and those who are not, we get to build the suspense before the actual murder happens. We get clues, but not all of them are helpful. Some of these clues are just there to confuse us.
I really enjoyed this book. I loved the guessing game of who would be murder, how and why. When it happened, I was surprised, but the murder, this was a shock I did not see coming. If you are in to murder mystery, this is a book you will want to read!
12-string dean –
Top-notch cozy mystery
I bought this wonderfully engaging mystery at a bookstore signing in Las Vegas, Stephen Murray’s home for many years, after his UK and remarkable African upbringing. Murray eventually landed in Los Angeles, then in Las Vegas with his software company. I’d met Stephen while I was doing a fund-raiser at the same bookstore and found him wonderfully engaging — as is his QE II mystery. It’s beautifully structured, suspenseful, very well written, and, as E. M. Forster suggests, has the wonderful virtue of entrancing the reader with “what comes next” — a paraphrase, of course, keeping the reader turning those pages with great interest. QE II has the additional virtue of providing very well placed “clues” or fore-shadowings, just enough to engage the reader with Stephen’s on-board private investigator in his attempts to solve the murder. Murray’s P.I., like the other characters in his fascinating cast, is well wrought, and adds to the great “variety of the entertainment” (apologies to Bertolt Brecht), trying to sort out the multitude of possible motives among the family and friends who have joined the “happy couple” voyaging from London to New York to celebrate their wedding anniversary. In sum, I thought QE II one of the most enjoyable reads in this genre I’ve encountered in a long while. Here’s to Stephen’s next one, DISCREETLY YOURS, a crime novel, set in Las Vegas this time, not quite so confined a venue as that most beautiful of ships.
Roger DeBlanck –
A Light and Satisfying Mystery
Stephen Murray, award-winning author of The Chapel of Eternal Love, shifts his focus from crafting memorable Vegas romance stories to exploring the mystery genre in Murder Aboard the Queen Elizabeth II. This is a light and satisfying mystery that can aptly draw comparisons to the iconic Murder, She Wrote television series and the books coinciding with the show. In skillful fashion, Murray develops a well-rounded cast of characters around Brian Sinclair, music mogul of Sinclair Records, and his loyal wife of twenty-five years, Sylvia. They plan their wedding anniversary on the QEII, and to celebrate they invite their children and closest friends. When a member of the party dies on the cruise, it is clear that past conflicts and differences of opinion may lend evidence of possible motives for anyone as the suspect. The shrewd insight and experience of private investigator Richard Manning is required in order to assemble the subtle clues and expose the assailant. Murray does a nice job of maintaining the suspense as the plot builds. The story accelerates to a new gear when Manning begins filtering through the many scenarios to arrive at the truth. With plenty of witty dialogue, heated trysts, and the right amount of sympathy, Murray delivers a page-turning murder investigation that will keep you guessing until the final twist reveals the culprit.
Amazon Customer –
Murder on the Queen Elizabeth II kept me engaged to the end. Anyone of those on board could have been guilty.
The Author took a thread, spun it through several families with great finesse. I noticed a hint of his own background patched in giving the story line credibility. Any one of his characters had reason to be guilty – yet it went to the end to discover the murderer. Murder aboard ship is not unheard of – connecting his invitees in such a unique way without overlapping each other is a gift. Those who love a good mystery adventure will love Stephen’s
book – Murder aboard the QEII! My personal genre is non-fiction because of my own background of adventures; however, I
found Murder on the QEII engaging enough I did not want it to end. The characters were well
cast, interesting with different personalities (a gift in itself) and emotional. That the characters
meld together each with their own physicality and attitudes requires vision and experience.
Well done, Stephen Murray, Author – and crafter of emotional memories.
Bunny Moazed MS
Amazon Customer –
Traditional Murder Mystery
I thought the setting aboard the Queen Elizabeth II was a good one, and the victim was a character you’d love to hate. The set-up happens before a group of twelve sets sail on the voyage from Southampton to New York to celebrate a couple’s silver wedding anniversary. There are lots of suspects in this whodunnit, all with plausible motives for wanting to dispatch the victim. I liked the way each suspect tried to blame someone else for the murder.
Luanna Helena – Voiceover Siren –
A Cruise With Countless Emotional Ports of Call
While a mystery like Murder Aboard the Queen Elizabeth II may be described as an emotional rollercoaster, I found it to be, both literally and figuratively, more like a cruise with countless emotional ports of call. From the beginning, two primary questions are obvious: 1 Who is murdered? 2 Who commits the murder? On the contrary, the answers to these questions are so skillfully woven into the text by the author that the reader is never quite certain of which direction the turn of events may take. This however, is exactly what keeps you turning page after page, gleefully outwitted by the author’s intricate plot until you arrive at the surprisingly unexpected outcome. This same element of unpredictability is also why I recommend Stephen Murray’s Murder Aboard the Queen Elizabeth II to anyone ready to embark on a truly mysterious and thrilling adventure.
Irene Hochman –
You did it again!
I loved it! The story kept moving and I thought, “She did it, nope, he did it.” Even when I had an idea, I didn’t know WHY he was killed. When I got to the end, my mouth was just open. I thought, “Damn, I didn’t think of THAT person!” Good work! You did it again!