Who Committed Murder on an Alaskan Cruise?
I spent last week on an Alaskan Cruise. I decided not to bring any physical books with me but to instead spend the week reading books via the Kindle app on my phone. One of the books I decided to read I knew was set in Alaska, but I also decided to read An Almost Purrfect Murder, the third Frankie Chandler Pet Psychic Mystery from Jacqueline Vick. Imagine my surprise when I started it and realized that Frankie is on an Alaskan cruise for this book.
A cruise is not Frankie’s first choice of vacations, but her best friend, Penny, has decided to have a destination wedding, and Frankie is the maid of honor. Besides, the trip is paid for. What could go wrong? The fact that one of the acts is a man with trained cats does give Frankie pause, however.
The first morning at sea, Frankie finds one of those cats sitting outside her stateroom trying to communicate something. It makes a certain sense when she looks over her balcony and sees the dead body of the cat trainer one on of the lifeboats below. She quickly realizes the man was murdered. But can she convince anyone else of that without revealing that she is basing this on knowledge she got from a cat?
Yes, I do typically avoid paranormal themed series, so the fact that Frankie is a real pet psychic is a little odd of a reading choice for me, but this is one of the few exceptions I have made over the years. It’s a light element, and the clues she gets that way are often more confusing than helpful until the end of the book.
The pacing was uneven in this entry. The wedding and romantic storylines are competing with the murder for Frankie’s attention. Since this is the third in the series, I did care about those storylines, so I wasn’t bored. But it would have been nice to see the murder get another twist or two and another suspect or two.
Not that it was completely straightforward. I thought I had the general direction of the story figured out, and I even thought I had a clue or two figured out early, but I misinterpreted them. That impressed me as I neared the end.
Since this is the third in the series, we know a few of the characters, but many in the cast were introduced here, including the suspects. I found them to be entertaining and helped draw me into the story.
I’ve been on another Alaskan cruise in the past, so even though I finished the book before I stopped in any ports, I still had an idea of what the areas Frankie was visiting looked like. At times, it was a bit surreal, and I had to remind myself what was the book and what I was planning on visiting in real life.
Then there’s the humor. Between the cat antics and some of the situations Frankie finds herself in, I laughed multiple times as I was reading. I’ll admit that I found a few things that I’m sure should have been funny more eye rolling immaturity than funny, but that could just be me.
Overall, An Almost Purrfect Murder was a fun book. Whether you read it in Alaska or at home, you’ll enjoy this vacation with Frankie.
Enjoy the rest of the Frankie Chandler Pet Psychic Mysteries.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for stopping by. In order to combat spam, I moderate most comments. I'll get to your comment as soon as I can.