To Davy Jones Below
4 Stars

Following their wedding, Alec and Daisy Fletcher are sent by Scotland Yard to America to aid in establishing the fledging FBI. Accompanying them on the cross-Atlantic voyage are Philip Petrie and his wife, Gloria, as well as her father, Caleb P. Arbuckle, and his wealthy friend, Jethro Gotobed, who has recently wed a showgirl whom everyone suspects of being a golddigger. When a series of suspicious accidents result in the deaths of several passengers, Daisy finds herself investigating while Alec is laid low by sea sickness.

Series note: This book includes numerous characters from earlier installments. As such, it is recommended that the series be read in order.

While the mystery is obvious from the start, the cruise ship setting is excellent (as are the details on the various shipping accidents interspersed throughout the narrative), and the interesting characters, including the engaging Mr. Gotobed and the intriguing Miss Oliphant, more than compensate for the lack of originality in the plot.

There is also some good character development for Daisy and Alec, who are getting to know each other even better now that they are married and forced into close quarters onboard the ocean liner. Alec proves to be a terrible patient, and Daisy's forbearance is admirable.

A final note on the audiobook narration - Lucy Raynor has replaced Mia Chiaromonte, which makes all the difference. Her voices, both male and female, are excellent; her accents, English and American, are appropriate, and her pronunciation is accurate (thank goodness!).

Overall, this is a significant improvement from the past couple of books. Hopefully, the series has regained its momentum and will be moving in a positive direction. ( )

A rushed marriage and a man overboard start of the investigation; however, as more bodies fatally fall from the ship, Alec will have to get his sea legs to solve the crime before everyone goes ashore. With Daisy, his new wife, to assist, they may be able to save at least one innocent life.

cosy-mystery, law-enforcement, maritime, murder, murder-investigation, due-diligence, mal-de-mer, family-dynamics, friendship, fraud, situational-humor, verbal-humor, herbalist*****

Daisy and DCI Alec are on board a liner (headed to NYC and a meeting with the newly formed FBI) in company of friends with secrets when there is a man overboard. With Alec sandbagged by sea sickness Daisy has the brunt of the investigation as thought turn to murder and there are other complications. All the plot twists and red herrings you could want balanced by humor and wit.
Lucy Rayner did a fine job as narrator with all the perkiness of Daisy herself! ( )

As with all of the Daisy Dalrymple series, I liked this book a lot. I liked that Daisy was acting on her own at some points since Alec was seasick but they are a good team. It was also quite a change from the usual setting at a museum or country house. It's definitely fun reading these in order. ( )

Daisy & CDI Alec Fletcher are now married and on their way to their honeymoon, when their plans are most rudely disrupted & rearranged to send them on a trans-Atlantic voyage to the u.s. in order to help quell corruption in the FBI.

Rather than standing up & defending their honeymoon plans, Alec agrees to the trip, telling Daisy that they'll have two extra weeks added to their honeymoon via their voyage.

Unfortunately & unbeknown to the entire group, one of their companions has married a much disliked former showgirl and much to their dismay brings her along on the voyage.

From that point on I figured it all out: Two smarmy young men are seen in the company of the showgirl, whom she claims are merely "stage-door Johnnies".

A young woman sees a man heaved overboard, but no one, especially Alec, believes her, they think he somehow just fell overboard, even though he was too much short to go over on his own. Throughout the book he remains in a coma.

Next one of the "Stage-door Johnnies", who turns out to be a card-shark & cheating one of the passengers, is shot & he falls overboard, his body unrecoverable. Then the second "Stage-door Johnnie" falls overboard and drowns as well....

During all of this the chorus-girl is indisposed, as is Alec w/ sea-sickness one of the passengers, a herbalist (prejudicially called the "witch" by the author), comes to the rescue w/ her natural remedies.

When all seems to calm down the chorus girl is stricken by belladonna poison, which she has been using as eyedrops to brighten her eyes, and dies....

From the beginning, who-done-it was too easy to figure out, even though there were plenty of suspects.... Alec was a total azz, acting out of character by dismissing the first witness's account of what she saw.

Bah! ( )