Not a Cruise Ship Cozy
I was very disappointed that this was not the Cruise ship finale. This is volume 1 of the next series. Only 1 person saw her off the ship. I was expecting a last adventure in the remaining 10 days in Spain or France. So book 9 was the last book.
This one was full of the usual hijinks, but it wasn't something I lost sleep over. I'm not sure why. I read the first 9 through in 5 days. I put this one down for a day, then restarted it. Humor and Comedy, Crime, Paranormal So, the cruise is over and Patrica Fisher has to say goodbye to her friends from the ship. The captain wants her to stay. How hard is it to say no? Will she give in to love? But home is calling to her. She needs to find a job and a place to live in. And she's already got her first case.
As much as it breaks my heart to see Patricia's cruise end, I'm really looking forward to the new series. Steve Higgs, author extraordinaire, makes his characters come alive. And after you read a few of the books in a series, you feel like you know them. They've become your friends.
This is definitely a must-read. It's clean, no sex, no vulgar language, no paranormal. Just a middle-aged woman with a curious mind and lots of ingenuity. Humor and Comedy, Crime, Paranormal OMGosh! I can’t believe this woman. My life is so dull, even if I am the same sort of klutz she sometimes is. Leaving the Aurelia and moving back to a new life in her old Village doesn’t go smoothly for Patricia as she also has her old best friend’s murder to solve. What a ride - exciting, funny, clever, several really good mysteries. Humor and Comedy, Crime, Paranormal Patricia's exploits in Zangrabar have preceded her back to her home town in Kent, for better or worse. She could have stayed on the HMS Aurelia but chose to return and solve the murder of her best friend of fifty years, the very one who broke up her marriage and sent her fleeing around the world in the first place.
The more she digs, the deeper her soon-to-be ex-husband's double dealings are revealed to be, too. And in the midst of all, Anna the dachshund has her pups. What's more, it seems that every day there is a fresh attempt on Patricia's life. The story starts as she's in deadly peril, locked in a car's boot. How did she get from the royal suite of a luxury liner to there, so swiftly?
We meet characters from Higgs' other mystery series, which is a breath of fresh air. What a start to the Patricia Fisher Investigative Bureau, and long may it prosper!
Humor and Comedy, Crime, Paranormal Patricia takes on a case, for her ex-husband to find his lover's killer. There are many twists and turns and some wonderful surprises in this book. I'll admit I cried ***Spoiler Alert*** when I learned Jermaine was going to be working for and with Patricia. He was my absolute favorite character and would miss him in the coming series.
ARC Humor and Comedy, Crime, Paranormal
A fabulous finish to an absolutely brilliant series. Just as with the previous books in the series Patricia is caught up in events without actually needing to seek them out, they simply seem to hone in on her and pursue until things are sorted.
Evading someone who appeared to be a killer (from his appearance) when she left the liner Patricia returns to her home village and decides to stay at a local B&B. She has been engaged by her soon-to-be ex husband to investigate the murder of her once best friend Maggie, the same Maggie whose affair with Patricia's husband Charlie was the cause of her around the world cruise in the first place. At the same time Patricia has decided to set up shop as a private investigator, and co-incidentally ends up renting the same, but newly refurbished, office that a rival business once rented (the business relocated to across the road after an unfortunate incident which can be found related in the Blue Moon Investigations series by the same author, a series very well worth reading indeed). Something tells Patricia that, despite the murder of Maggie appearing to have been an execution by gangland assassins the real killer can be found closer to home even though two of London's top criminal bosses were videoed at her house only hours before she died.
The plot is as twisted as any of the previous books with suspects galore, red herrings by the bucket load and the added allure of someone who appears to be a killer after Patricia as well. Luckily she works everything out and manages to trap all the various nefarious characters for their different criminal activities, including Maggies death.
The ending is a complete surprise, while Anna has her puppies Patricia discovers that the ''assassin'' has just saved her life and, in addition, has been seeking her out to obtain her signature on some important paperwork. Paperwork which results in a huge surprise and a very unexpected re-union for Patricia.
Really a book worthy of being the final in the series, a series which has been a pure joy to read from the first to the last. I will now reread the Blue Moon Investigations series again before obtaining the next in the Patricia Fisher series. Fantastical, unreal, spellbinding and completely addictive. And that applies to both series of books.
Humor and Comedy, Crime, Paranormal The Aurelia has finally docked in Southampton, its maiden voyage complete. After tearfully bidding Jermaine and Barbie goodbye, she leaves by the general exit, which surprises not only the porters waiting with her luggage, but helps her evade a large, thick-necked man in a suit who looks suspiciously like the English version of the various organized crime thugs she encountered on her trip around the world. She and Anna make their way back to East Malling in her battered Ford Fiesta, where she’s arranged to stay at Mrs. Crawford’s bed & breakfast.
She’s anxious to get on with solving the murder of her former best friend, Maggie Jeffries, and enters her home using the spare key Maggie gave her years ago, where she finds some illuminating paperwork — Charlie is an executive director of Maggie’s publishing company. Still stewing, she then has to deal with the arrival of the police, who were alerted by the alarm company when she entered. Although they’re not pleased by her entry into a crime scene, she makes a friend in Detective Sergeant Mike Atwell, who recognizes that the famous cruise ship detective really knows what she’s doing.
While running errands the next day (and briefly meeting Tempest Michaels of Blue Moon Investigations), she’s rudely yanked off the street by Sergeant James Jenkins and his organized crime unit, who have decided Old City Firm gangsters Jim Brevin and Ian Drummond killed Maggie and order her not to interfere with their predetermined investigation. After the boorish police sergeant forces her to trudge on foot all the way back to Rochester, she’s then genteelly escorted off the pavement into a posh car to the HQ of the gangsters, where she’s served her customary G&T while the two men insist they had nothing to do with Maggie’s murder, despite having been caught on tape at her home a few hours before her death. (They also know Sergeant Jenkins has operatives squirreled away in their organization and feed them false information to throw the police off track.)
And when she finally returns to the B&B, the thick-necked man is waiting on the doorstep, so she flees to Charlie’s house, where he begrudgingly allows her to stay in a spare room … and withers under her questions about his investment in Maggie’s company.
As she pursues the case, her life is threatened three times, her little Ford reduced to smoking rubble, and she uncovers financial skullduggery in Maggie’s publishing firm. She tracks down the sticky-fingered culprit, who credibly claims no connection with the murder, and is still wondering who shot her former friend execution-style when the killer turns up in the most ordinary of circumstances.
And that’s also when the thick-necked man turns up once again, but the surprise he has for Patricia is far from from what she expected.
No Place Like Home is a satisfying conclusion to the cruise ship mysteries and lays the groundwork for Patricia’s new life and detective agency at home in England. It promises to be an adventurous future.
Humor and Comedy, Crime, Paranormal Brilliant, exciting, so much fun to read.
This book is the best the author, Steve Higgs, has written of the Patricia Fisher series (A Humorous Cruise Ship Cozy Mystery) which is saying something, because this series is rather good. This being book 10 in the series, you would think that the stories were becoming repetitive, but that is far from the. The books have just been getting better and better!
The correct criminal is hard to work out. Right up to the end I was completely flummoxed and totally in the dark. Who was the murderer and who was the tall, no-necked man, that was turning up all over the place?
This book was bloody brilliant! I really thoroughly enjoyed it, and that ending tho, it had me in tears! oh, and there are new born puppies, PUPPIES *she squeaks excitedly!
Such a lot was happening that it was easy to get totally swept away with it all. It's thrilling stuff for sure, and if you guess who the killer is or their motive before it all comes out near the end, well you are a better slueth than me, because I had to read it before I was like, 'ohhhh, it's not who I thought it was, wow, I did NOT see that coming!'
To say that I like this book, is like saying I like ice cream. Well I don't like ice cream, I LOVE ice cream, and I love this book. I hope this review encourages you to try it. It really is a very good read.
Humor and Comedy, Crime, Paranormal Really good
Patricia leaves the cruise ship and all her friends and opens her own detective agency but before she can get established she is kidnapped, has an arrow shot at her, is nearly run over and Anna has her puppies. The ending was quite heartwarming. I can't wait to read what happens next for Patricia. These books are excellent. Humor and Comedy, Crime, Paranormal Fifty-three-year-old Patricia Fisher is a trouble magnet like no other, a sad fact she has come to accept during her three month around the world cruise. Wherever she goes, bodies just appear, or someone gets kidnapped, or she accidentally uncovers a plot to overthrow a government.
Life certainly isn’t dull for Patricia.
But when she arrives home in England, she plans to start a new chapter of her life. Of course, she has a case waiting for her: the murder of her former BFF, successful business owner Maggie Jeffries. It’s not the straightforward investigation she expected though. Maggie’s office manager has vanished, anomalous sums are missing from the business accounts, and there’s a mysterious giant following her.
Could her past cases be coming back to get revenge?
With a potential gangland connection to the murder, cops telling her to leave the case alone, and her dog, Anna, about to give birth to royal puppies, Patricia is in for one heck of a homecoming week.
Oh, and she has nowhere to live, her car is on the fritz, her soon-to-be ex-husband is lying to her, and someone definitely wants her dead.
She’s going to need a lot of gin and tonic to get through this case alive.
This is a brilliant read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believeable.
Great suspense and action with wonderful world building that adds so much to the story.
Can't wait to read more of these.
Recommend reading.
I read a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest review. Humor and Comedy, Crime, Paranormal
Fifty-three-year-old Patricia Fisher is a trouble magnet like no other, a sad fact she has come to accept during her three month around the world cruise. Wherever she goes, bodies just appear, or someone gets kidnapped, or she accidentally uncovers a plot to overthrow a government.
Life certainly isn’t dull for Patricia.
But when she arrives home in England, she plans to start a new chapter of her life. Of course, she has a case waiting for her: the murder of her former BFF, successful business owner Maggie Jeffries. It’s not the straightforward investigation she expected though. Maggie’s office manager has vanished, anomalous sums are missing from the business accounts, and there’s a mysterious giant following her.
Could her past cases be coming back to get revenge?
With a potential gangland connection to the murder, cops telling her to leave the case alone, and her dog, Anna, about to give birth to royal puppies, Patricia is in for one heck of a homecoming week.
Oh, and she has nowhere to live, her car is on the fritz, her soon-to-be ex-husband is lying to her, and someone definitely wants her dead.
She’s going to need a lot of gin and tonic to get through this case alive.
This book includes Under a Blue Moon, a free additional full-length bonus novel from the Blue Moon series. No Place Like Home: Patricia Fisher Mysteries (A Humorous Cruise Ship Cozy Mystery Book 10)