Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Murder on the Med: A Kat Lawson Mystery by Nancy Cole Silverman. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
Murder on the Med: A Kat Lawson Mystery
by Nancy Cole Silverman
Murder on the Med: A Kat Lawson Mystery
Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting – On a cruise ship in the Mediterranean
Publisher : Level Best Books (June 4, 2024)
Print length : 271 pages
A travel feature turns into a deadly investigation for Kat Lawson when she discovers a missing passenger, presumed overboard, may have been used as a mule to smuggle ancient artifacts aboard Athena, a luxury cruise ship designed for retired seniors at sea.
Kat Lawson has got a plumb assignment, or so she thinks. Travel International has rewarded her with a vacation cruise along the Amalfi Coast to report on a new floating senior retirement center. After working undercover as a travel reporter for the FBI and barely escaping her last assignment with her life, Kat’s job is to relax, take notes, shoot pictures, and report back on an extravagant cruise from Napes to Positano. What could go wrong?
But once aboard, Kat quickly learns it’s not all smooth sailing. Kat finds a handbag for Dede Drummerhausen, the woman who owns the suite where Kat is staying, and hidden inside is a gold coin. Rumor abound. Passengers and some of their possessions have gone missing. The residents are restless, and some on board are suspicious of a travel reporter who might uncover their secret mission. When Athena’s captain discovers Kat snooping below deck, she soon realizes, like the antiquities hidden onboard, that she’s been kidnapped and that her job and her life are in danger.
My review of Murder on the Med
Murder on the Med by Nancy Cole Silverman is the third book in the Kat Lawson mystery series, but you can read them individually and still really enjoy them. I’ve read them all, and they are excellent!
You know how you just know when you’re reading a book from an author who really writes well as opposed to those who make a good effort and tell a good story, but they really aren’t a great writer? Well Nancy Cole Silverman is a great author who knows how to write a brilliant cozy mystery. Reading her books feels comfortable. She knows exactly how much dialogue to use, and she knows how to write like people actually talk! She knows how to add new characters in each mystery who are memorable. Furthermore, she knows how to draw readers into the setting of her books. And, Murder on the Med is set on a very unique cruise ship traveling along the Amalfi Coast.
Kat Lawson is a travel writer who found herself working undercover for the FBI, but she’s there to relax and write lovely stories about a lovely ship and a lovely setting. You get it. Her relaxing cruise ends up being quite unlovely. The cruise ship is unique in that it houses condos for wealthy senior citizens. Some live on board all year while others have several homes. But Kat quickly finds that some of these retired seniors aren’t who they appear to be on the surface. There have been disappearances, and one senior insists that the woman who normally occupies Kat’s condo has been murdered and thrown overboard. Was she? Why are there so many empty condos? And to top it off, Kat finds a valuable coin and other antiquities that may not have been obtained legally.
Murder on the Med is such a great mystery! It’s very well-researched, and that adds so much to the feeling of authenticity you get while reading. I thought that the pacing was perfect, and at no point was I just skimming. I was absorbed in the mystery, and it kept me turning the pages.
I highly recommend Murder on the Med! It has a well-plotted, well-researched mystery; an eclectic mix of well-written characters; a unique and beautiful setting; and it’s written by an excellent author! Cozy mystery lovers, get this today!
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.
Character Guest Post: Trouble Finds Me
My name is Kat Lawson, I’m an investigative reporter and an undercover operative for the FBI, working as a feature writer for a travel publication. And if there is one thing you need to know about me, it’s that I have a habit of getting into some rather dicey situations. Trouble finds me, no matter where I go.
This might help to explain my current situation in Murder on the Med, and how I ended up on a luxury cruise ship designed for retirees who wanted to spend their sunset years at sea only to discover a group of rogue seniors who decided to augment their pension plans with a little piracy and taken over the ship!
Like I said, trouble seems to find me. This trip was supposed to be a freebie. A no-nonsense, nonthreatening vacation from my earlier undercover work as a travel writer. My assignment was to simply write about the joys of retirement aboard Athena, a luxury condos-at-sea cruise ship, as she sailed the Amalfi Coast. My biggest concern, or so I thought, was sunburn. How much trouble can a group of seniors get into?
I like to think of myself as level-headed and when it comes to people, a pretty good judge of character. I am not the least bit naive. I’m middle-aged, in relatively good shape, single, twice married; widowed at 21, and divorced at 40. I’m quite happy on my own and my biggest aspiration is to get back to the newsroom at a major paper, buy a small condominium, and one day author a book about my life experiences as an undercover operative with the FBI. But I had no idea that the people I would meet on board Athena were about to make me think that that future was in jeopardy or that I’d be lucky to walk off this ship alive.
Perhaps if I give you a brief snapshot of a few of my shipmates it might help to understand what I’m up against.
The Churchill sisters. Two elderly, saccharinely sweet, spinster school teachers, who enjoy dishing conspiracy theories and believe their good friend Dede Drummerhausen, whose cabin I was staying in, had fallen overboard.
Neil Webster. In addition to being one of the world’s wealthiest men, and heir to a South African diamond mine, he’s a very private man, who owns Athena, has a secret to keep, and is not at all happy to have a reporter on board.
Herr Professor Braun and his wife Greta. From the University of Munich, a stodgy old, retired history professor, and his portly wife with a taste for chocolates, and extravagant jewelry.
Inspector Garnier and his much younger wife, Camile. The Inspector is a famous Parisian investigator with a sterling reputation for his work in criminal investigations. Camile is an aerialist and former circus star performer who insists on privacy while she continues to improve upon her high dive for reasons I did not understand until it was too late.
Nicholas Marcopoulos, aka, Marco, an elderly accountant with a questionable past, and noted proclivity toward kleptomania and sleepwalking in the buff.
Add in a Russian oligarch named Oleg Sidorov, who found Athena’s hull abandoned in a German shipyard back in ‘89 after the Soviet Union fell apart and later proposed the idea of turning what was left of her rusty hull into a modern-day retirement center for seniors at sea to an eager young investor named Neil Webster.
But no shipboard story would be complete without a handsome captain, which might have been perfect, were it not for the fact that Captain Byard, had an uncanny resemblance to my first husband, and had me second-guessing my decision to hold off on any shipboard romance.
Then there is Athena herself, a gleaming white powerhouse of a yacht, the length of two football fields, with 165 luxury condos, three hundred and fifty-five residents from all over the world, and an international crew of a hundred and twenty-five.
Nothing had prepared me for this trip, nor the feeling that many of the residents seemed to be uncomfortable with a reporter’s presence onboard. As I started to suspect that this idyllic sail across the Mediterranean might be nothing more than a cover for the transportation of stolen artifacts, I grew worried that I had stumbled across a group of ruthless buccaneers intent on selling a hidden cargo of stolen antiquities worth millions to the black market. If I spoke up too soon, I feared I would be thrown overboard. If I waited until Athena reached her ultimate destination, her precious bounty would be lost to the world forever.
About Nancy Cole Silverman
Nancy Cole Silverman spent nearly twenty-five years in news and talk radio before retiring to write fiction. Silverman’s award-winning short stories and crime-focused novels, the Carol Childs and Misty Dawn Mysteries (Henry Press), are based in Los Angeles, while her newest series, the Kat Lawson Mysteries (Level Best Books), takes a more international approach. Kat Lawson, a former investigative reporter has gone undercover for the FBI as a feature writer for a travel publication. Expect lots of international intrigue, vivid descriptions of small European villages, great food, lost archives, and non-stop action. Silverman lives in Los Angeles with her husband and thoroughly pampered standard poodle, Paris.
Author Links
Website: www.nancycolesilverman.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nancy.silverman.90/
Threads: @nancy.silverman
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4027978.Nancy_Cole_Silverman
Purchase Links – Amazon
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Murder on the Med TOUR PARTICIPANTS
June 3 – Mystery, Thrillers & Suspense – SPOTLIGHT
June 4 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST
June 5 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – CHARACTER GUEST POST
June 6 – Carstairs Considers – REVIEW
June 7 – Literary Gold – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 8 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading – REVIEW
June 9 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 10 – StoreyBook Reviews – AUTHOR GUEST POST
June 11 – Elizabeth McKenna – Author – SPOTLIGHT
June 12 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
June 13 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 14 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST
June 15 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
June 15 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – AUTHOR GUEST POST
June 16 – Baroness Book Trove – REVIEW
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I think I would like to escape to the place on the cover!