Crime Quiz: Cosy Mystery on a Cruise by TJ Stanley | Character Guest Post with (2) $10 Amazon GC Giveaway US/CAN 10/9

Christy Maurer

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Crime Quiz: Cosy Mystery on a Cruise by TJ Stanley | Character Guest Post with (2) $10 Amazon GC Giveaway US/CAN 10/9

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Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Crime Quiz: Cosy Mystery on a Cruise by TJ Stanley. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!

Crime Quiz: Cosy Mystery on a Cruise

by TJ Stanley

Crime Quiz: Cosy Mystery on a Cruise
Cosy (Cozy) Mystery
Setting – On a cruise from Sydney to Hobart in Australia
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Stanley Press
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 26, 2025
Number of Pages : 200

Molly should be on her honeymoon, but her husband had disappeared.

Thomas should be preaching, but the bishop had other ideas.

Lynette should be in Aspen, but her doctor refused to let her fly.

Instead, they’re sailing on a five-day round trip between Sydney and Hobart.

At 5.00am on the fourth day of the cruise, Captain Jonas Strong announces that five passengers have died overnight.

Were this a cruise with the usual guest profile, such news may have caused a temporary flutter of nerves before being forgotten. But the Oceanic Wanderer was hosting a Crime Writers’ Conference with hundreds of amateur sleuths who were now wondering, if there was more to the announcement than they were being told.

Was there a murderer among them?

CRIME QUIZ delivers a cosy-mystery caper in a cruisy setting.

AUTHOR GUEST POST: A LAYERED COZY MYSTERY

Many of the best stories are layered. For cozy mysteries there’s always a crime to be solved. Crime Quiz is no exception, although the real crime is not immediately revealed. It also has B stories around friendship, loss of status, career identity and falling in love. I wanted Crime Quiz to be a little educational as well as a fun read so included learning around how to investigate a crime and write a novel. A crime happening while a Crime Writers conference was underway, was the perfect setting for achieving this.

While my own attendance at a Literary Festival on a cruise informed the structure of Crime Quiz, the main characters are invented. Indeed, I outlined the story in a workshop on how to plot a novel given by Graeme Simsion, best-selling author of The Rosie Project. In Crime Quiz, I created a retired detective turned novelist called Roy Henderson to share his experience in solving crimes and he’s also called upon to calm down an overexcited room full of amateur sleuths.

Here’s an excerpt from a scene in Crime Quiz where Roy Henderson is on the stage sharing his insights at the Crime Writers Conference.

The cruise director introduced the panellists, one a retired detective who now wrote historical crime fiction and the other a librarian and popular podcast host who loved heist stories brought to life on the big screen. Once the audience adoration had settled and clapping ceased, the opening question was posed.

‘Do readers prefer to guess who-done-it or to discover how they did it, knowing who the criminal is? Roy, your views.’

‘I think that is the wrong question, but at its heart raises a more important one. Why do readers love crime fiction? When we know the answer to that question, we’re able to answer your first question.’

‘OK then. We’re listening Roy.’

‘Solving puzzles. Readers of crime fiction love to solve puzzles. Maybe the puzzle is who did it, or how did they do it and get away with the perfect crime. I compare the experience to playing Wordle each morning. Can I solve the puzzle before I’ve expired my six guesses? How many goes did it take me? For the reader, can they solve the mystery before the end of the book, and how far before the main protagonist discovers the vital clue?’

This leads neatly to my question to you: Are you one of those readers who likes to have guessed who-done-it before they turn the last page? I certainly am and get quite annoyed if not enough clues have been dropped to help me to get there. Let me know how quickly you spot the villain in Crime Quiz. You can email me at tracy [AT] tjstanley.com

About TJ Stanley

Tracy Stanley has been in love with storytelling since she left university in 1984.

In 2017, she started publishing, and as of August 2025, Tracy has independently published fifteen books across five genres, including business books, travel memoirs, cosy mysteries, romantic suspense, and action-adventure novels. These last two genres have been written under the pen name of Jane Ellyson.

Her writing approach for novels recognises that creativity in storytelling comes from mixing the familiar with a twist, combining comfort and intrigue.

Tracy is Australian and lives in Brisbane.

Author Links –

You can learn more about TJ Stanley at tjstanley.com and her alter-ego Jane Ellyson at janeellyson.com

Her other social media hangouts are listed below.

TJ Stanley

https://tjstanley.com/articles/

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/58267368.TJ_Stanley

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracystanley1/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DrTracyStanley/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/tjstanley64/?hl=en

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