Mystery on Board: Cruising Into Murder

It's vacation time, and maybe you're longing to sail away from it all. You may even be one of the folks actually taking a cruise ship to exotic destinations. But what if there is a murderer hunting among the passengers trapped on that floating hotel? If you don't mind a frisson of anxiety with your real or imagined cruise adventure, add some of these noted mystery authors' tales of shipboard murder to your reading list. A well-known classic is Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie, in which her Belgian sleuth Hercules Poirot plans a leisurely cruise down the Nile but ends up sifting through suspicious passengers and false leads to solve the murder of a wealthy young woman. Bestselling suspense author Mary Higgins Clark also penned a thriller with a cruise setting. In Clark's You Belong to Me, a killer stalks lonely women on board cruise ships as a radio-show psychologist rushes to catch the murderer before he can literally stop her dead. Famed New Zealand writer Ngaio Marsh even introduced her mystery series' police detective Roderick Alleyn to the high seas in Singing in the Shrouds, sending Alleyn on a ship voyage in pursuit of a serial killer. But the King of Ocean-Liner Fiction is Conrad Allen. Allen's eight mysteries in the "Murder on the..." series are all set aboard pre-World War I cruise ships, starting with Murder on the Lusitania, and feature a husband and wife sleuthing team. For an updated ocean liner tale, fans of the "Murder, She Wrote" mystery series will appreciate Murder on the QE2, by Donald Bain and "Jessica Fletcher," as Jessica, invited aboard as one of seven guest lecturers, tries to solve the murder of a fellow speaker. For more mysteries with cruise ship settings, see http://www.cozy-mystery.com/blog/mystery-books-that-take-place-on-cruise-ships-mystery-books-at-sea.html

Last Chance for Your Summer Reading List

For me, the summer vacation season officially ends with Labor Day, which is September 7 this year. From then on, there is no denying the back-to-work and back-to-school grind. But I believe we all still have a little time, or can make a little time, for one last relaxed summer read. If you're looking for suggestions from the top, you could start with President Obama's summer vacation reading list, courtesy of an August report in The Washington Post: All That Is by James Salter, All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow. If you want a book to inspire you to dive back into your work routine with renewed energy, check out the reading list from Business.com. Recommendations range from The Martian by Andy Weir, fiction about a NASA astronaut stranded on Mars, to the latest motivational boost from Tom Peters in The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence. For more reading options, go to http://www.business.com/books-and-publications/summer-reading-list-beach-reads-to-inspire/. But if you want to dodge any thought of work stress for a few days more, check out vacation-savvy publisher Fodors' suggestions, eclectic reads that run from Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal, a foodie romp with each chapter focused on a single dish and character, to Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee, the controversial surprise sequel to the beloved To Kill a Mockingbird. For Fodors' list, see http://www.fodors.com/news/12-books-to-read-on-your-summer-vacation-11421.html.